Rise of a Shadow
by Dark Reaper
Summary: Zack rises from the ashes of obscurity to lend his aid to the cause of AVALANCHE. He'll need to regain his lost memories and face Sephiroth, all while trying to help Aeris and her friends if their world is ever to be saved.(Complete)
1. Rise of Zack

I was drifting, drifting within the pain, drifting for what seemed like an eternity. There was no escape, only darkness and suffering. I was trapped within a prison for my soul and there was no way out. So I sunk deeper and deeper, and the farther I went the more the pain increased until it was a constant heavy throbbing so great that it felt as if my skull were being torn asunder and my spirit was being crushed beneath a mountain. Yet I struggled on, I would not give up, I could not give up because I never knew when SHE might appear. Whether a delusion of my own mind or an angel I did not know although I leaned more toward the latter. She was the balm of my soul, every time she appeared within the currents of my madness the darkness was banished and I felt like I could rise out of the suffering like it had all been a dream. However, I never could and she never stayed. The instant she was gone I fell back into the pain and shadows, but I always had a renewed strength, I knew that I could go on. For how long I was like this I cannot say, only that it was too long. Then one day everything changed.  
  
The throbbing was growing and I was beginning to once again feel that pull, that summon that came after she had been gone too long. It was as if it wanted me to exit the pain, to give in to the suffering so that it, whatever it was, could envelope me. Usually the visions came at about this time, but not now. She did not come this time to pull me from the brink of death, and I began to slip. There would be no more fighting; everything and everyone, including her had abandoned me, everything except for the summons and the pain. I think I may have been crying then, but I could not tell. I waited one last moment to wait, to hope that through some miracle she might appear before me in her red dress with her basket of flowers to save me from myself. My efforts were in vain and with one last cry of rage, one last mocking shout at the system that had done this to me, I died. At least, I thought I did.  
  
I watched as the darkness began to melt away into something more pure, a void of bliss. I was free, finally free from the torture! In the distance a light began to glow and to grow in brightness and intensity. The light was my call, it was from where the summons came and I had to go to it. As I took one step a mist formed about my foot and began to rise. It took the form of a head, a face, the face of someone that I knew very well. The girl, it was she! I would have recognized that face anywhere, but what was she doing here? "What are you doing here flower girl?" I asked in a puzzled voice. She laughed, "My name is Aeris, but you can call me flower girl if you like. And if you must know why I'm here Zack, it's because I'm dead," she replied as a look of sadness spread across her face. "No! No!" I shouted, "that can't be, you can't be dead!" She looked down and I could see that she was crying, "it's true, and I still have so much to do, so many people were counting on me, you were not the least either, but now I've failed them." I could not stand here and listen to this so I spoke up, "Listen Aeris, I'll do anything you want, anything to help! All you have to do is ask." She sniffed and smiled, "I know how much you've been through Zack, and I appreciate the thought but we're both dead. I've been able to contact my friends on the outside through visions of myself, but soon I'll be absorbed into the lifestream and then who will point them in the right direction?" she began to cry again. "If I made it out could you contact me?" I asked. She didn't even look up, " I suppose so, but how do you plan on getting out, I'm a Centra and even we can't escape death." I stared hard at her and set my jaw, "you saved me countless times, if it hadn't been for you I'd have died long ago. I owe you my life a dozen times over and if there is a way out I'll find it, if I can help your friends I will, and if there's a way to save you I will do it, no matter what the cost."  
  
She smiled again but her face was wet with tears, "thank you Zack, and here take this, take it as a gift from me." She reached into her basket, pulled out a single flower and handed it to me. I cupped the beautiful flower in my hands and stared at it. I could remember the pain, suffering, the darkness, and the suffocating shadows, but this was no longer my life. I looked at Aeris the flower girl and felt the rage boil within me at the injustice done to her. She was perhaps the most caring person I had ever known, although I really couldn't remember much from my past. I had to try and save her, and for that goal I was willing to risk everything. I grew more and more angry as a single tear rolled down my face and fell onto the flower. Instantly it began to burn with a light of its own as if it had caught on fire. It burned my hands but I clenched it tight and refused to let go. I looked at Aeris as my body began to shake. It felt as if every molecule in my body was being torn apart. Just as everything exploded into color, I saw her wave to me, smiling and laughing with joy.  
  
I can't really be sure how long I was unconscious, but I finally woke to find myself lying in a medium sized tunnel. There were shelves along the wall with miscellaneous items stacked on them. I was lying on a thin mat and a broken TV was fizzing and flickering behind me. I took off the dirty moth eaten cap I was wearing and scratched my shaved head. It felt strange because I seemed to remember having much longer hair. I stood up, my head just barely touching the ceiling. I walked out and found myself in the dirtiest, most detestable place I remembered ever having been before. The houses were broken down or already piles of garbage. Children played with dogs in the dusty streets as the young adults loitered around. Everything was dirty, grimy, and ready to be thrown in the dump. I looked up and was surprised to see that the sky was covered by a giant metal plate that seemed to stretch forever over the horizon.   
  
As I was taking in my surroundings another mist began to form in front of me. Just like last time Aeris appeared before me, but this time it was only her head. The rest of her body was lost within the smoke. "I am so happy that you made it Zack!" she said with a beaming smile on her face. "How did I do that? I thought you said that I was dead," I asked her. "I truly don't know, indeed you should not have been able to come back. Somehow you were able to overcome the sickness that was killing you in time to save yourself," she replied. "Well, what do I do now, I can't remember much so you'll need to help me," I said. She frowned, "Unfortunately I don't have the time to do that, but you do need to regain at least some of the memories from your past if you are to help me. I would head to Shinra HQ, they should have some information on your past." The name sounded familiar to me, "wait, what is Shinra, how do I get there?...Aeris!" It was too late because the vision was already abating and she was beginning to fade, "I don't have much time, I'll try to reach you once you've regained your memories. Don't forget that I'll be watching you no matter what." At this she disappeared and I was left alone in slum once more.  
  
I had to sit down. My head was pounding and my vision was blurred. I sat there on the side of the road clutching my head when someone approached me. "Hey man are you alright?" I looked up to see a young boy standing next to me. "I'll be fine," I replied, "but perhaps you could help me out with a little information." "Sure, I'll do what I can," he said, "What do you want to know?" I stood up and looked down at him, "I know this might sound strange but I want you to tell me where I am." He looked confused, "well sir, you're in the Sector 5 slums." "No," I said, "what is this whole place," I waved my arm around, "what is the name of this city." He laughed, "Why this is Midgar, everyone knows that." I frowned, "Can you tell me where and how to get to Shinra HQ?" I asked him. "I can tell you it's on the top plate. I only saw it once; it was the biggest building I ever saw. But you can't get to it anymore, not from here anyway." "What do you mean?" I asked the kid. "Jeez, you really are out of whack. You didn't hear about AVALANCHE blowing up Sector 7?" Now I was really confused, "No, but please explain it to me." The kid sighed, "Well, AVALANCHE was a sort of paramilitary team that was fighting Shinra. A while ago a bomb destroyed the Main Pillar in Sector 7 and the Plate collapsed on the entire Sector. The Shinra blamed it on AVALANCHE, but my dad says that they were the ones that actually did it. Anyway it doesn't matter cause the train station was in Sector 7 and until the tracks are re-routed we're all stuck down here." I growled in frustration and punched a piece of scrap metal leaning against the wall. "There has to be a way, can't you think of anything?" I asked. "Listen sir I've told you everything I know, if you want to look for yourself you can go down that way through Sector 6 where you'll come to the door to Sector 7. I'll tell you right now that it's completely blocked by debris, but if you really want to go you should get some materia and a weapon." Before I could ask any more questions the boy had run off to play with some of his friends.  
  
Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered something about materia. A memory that seemed to be calling me back to the tube. As I re-entered the place I started to move like I wasn't the one in control anymore. I threw off the mat and scanned the metal floor before seeing a small patch of metal that looked out of place. I pried it open with my fingernails and reached in. My hand came out clutching a wooden box with the name Zack carved on top. I opened it and found several different colored orbs within. This was materia, apparently my materia from before I got sick. I picked them up and put them in my pocket. I needed some way to appraise my materia so that I would know what I was working with.  
  
I walked around the slum until I found a shop with a flashing neon sign saying 'Materia'. I walked inside and stood in front of the front desk. "Excuse me I asked the woman standing in front of me, I would like to speak with the store owner." She laughed, "Well you've found him, now what can I do for you sir." I was embarrassed and smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, but I found some materia that I had lost and I need to get it appraised. I don't have any money, but I was hoping that you could help." "Sure, no problem, lets see 'em," she said. I emptied them onto the desk and watched as she ran a scanner over them and looked at a little hand-held screen. She whistled, "You sure you don't want to sell sir, you could get a really good price for these." "What do you mean, what do I have there?" I asked. "You have a mastered Contain, Gravity, Barrier, Cure, and All materia. You must be some kind of expert to use materia that powerful. Tell you what, around here you're going to need money and since you have so many valuable materia I'll buy that All for 1.5 million gil. Sound like a fare trade to you?" I was pretty confused by now, "Well..." "Ok sir, I can see that you're a hard negotiator so I'll offer 1.6 million, but that's my final offer!" I couldn't see any reason why not so I sold the materia and walked out of the store a very rich man.  
  
I still needed a weapon and I could see a beaten down trailer off the side with a sign on top advertising the sale of weapons. I walked into the dump and found the fat store owner sitting amid the debris. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside the trailer. "O a customer!" he said as he sat up and wiped the crumbs of his shirt. "How can I help you sir, are you looking for a weapon or armor?" I looked around the store and replied absentmindedly, "I need a weapon." "Well then you've come to the right place, I've got lots of grenades, got in a new shipment yesterday." I frowned at him, "I need something better than a pathetic grenade, surely you have something else." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "We may have something, but I don't know..." The anger rose up and I reached out to grab him by his neck. My fingers dug into the soft fat and with one tug I lifted him off his chair across the desk and out onto the floor. I stood there holding him off the ground by his neck as he choked and gurgled. "Lets try this again, do you or do you not have something better than a few grenades? Trust me that it will be worth your wild." I took out several thousand gil with my free hand and waved them in front of his face. He licked his lips and rasped out an ok as his face began to turn blue. I set him back on the floor. He fell to one knee and began to gasp for breath.   
  
When he had recovered he got up and walked behind his desk I could see his hand slid under the counter. I readied myself for some sort of betrayal, but he was only pressing a hidden button. Instantly the wall off to the left slid away and revealed a hidden chamber. He walked over and took out a long saber-like sword. "This is a new Shinra weapon called the Reaper. It was invented a few months ago but it's too expensive to be mass- produced. I don't think we really need to go into how I got my hands on one so how about we talk about a price." I nodded, "First I want to know why I'm paying for this sword, what makes it so special?" The owner looked offended, "Why sir! This a top of the line weapon, it's made out of pure titanium-nerak alloy. The blade is sharpened using high-tech laser beams, its sharp enough to cut through 4-inch thick steel like a hot knife through butter. It'll never get dull, that's a guarantee, and it comes equipped with 9 linked materia slots." I frowned, "I suppose it'll work." With that I dropped 50,000 gil down on the table and picked up the sword. It was a good weapon and had excellent balance. "By the way, I'll also take a few grenades, just in case," I dropped another thousand gil on the table as I strapped the grenades onto my belt. As I was walking out I heard the store owner behind me calling for me. "O and I almost forgot sir, it comes with a free sheath," the man threw me a black leather sheath which I strapped around my back before walking out of the store.  
  
I turned around and took one last look at the slum. I really couldn't appreciate at that time just how lucky I was, but I would later thank every person that helped me there. With that I began to walk down the passageway that the boy had shown me. I didn't know how, but somehow I was going to find a way to help Aeris and her friends, whoever they were. 


	2. Fight and Flight

I walked down the passageway. I trudged through garbage heaps and across piles of scrap metal until I reached a solid concrete wall. It reached up all the way to the plate far above me. However it did not take me long to locate a way through, a place where part of the wall had been broken through. I walked through into Sector 6, which I quickly learned was not more than just a construction site. As I walked through I though I could see shadows moving through and among the machinery and materials. Suddenly I heard a screech behind me, I turned just in time to dodge the attack of a small little beast. It had a snake-like body with several spidery legs and a round mouth full of razor sharp teeth. I grimaced, "Man you're disgusting," I said under my breath. The thing screeched again and leapt at me. This time I was ready and as it jumped I whirled around and sliced it in two with Reaper. As the two sections writhed on the ground I looked at the blade, "Well at least the owner didn't lie about you."   
  
I noticed more of the creatures cowering around a pile of iron bars. I paid them no head and continued on my way until I reached the end of the construction area that opened out into another slum. I found myself in a small, rundown playground. It was half destroyed by debris and I soon found what had caused this. On the far wall was a huge opening that must have been a door. I looked up and saw a big number 7 painted above it. It was the door to Sector 7 and just like the kid had said it was completely blocked up by debris. I was determined not to give up so easily and so I began to search for some way through, in vain. Not finding anything in the lower areas I began to climb up and around the rumble heap, still with out finding anything.  
  
As I searched I noticed something strange, a rat was crawling around near me, probably looking for food. I watched the creature in its hunt until it became aware of me. It rose up on its two hind legs and stared at me before bolting. I saw it run all the way up the heap and then disappear between what looked like the debris and the wall at the very top. This made me curious and so I went to explore. I found a man-sized hole where the rat had disappeared and it appeared to lead up. I wedged myself in and began to crawl, and to my great delight it appeared to go on straight for some time. I realized that if I were going to do this I would probably need some supplies. I had not seen anything like a supply store in Sector 5 and that left me high and dry without any ideas. I crawled back down to the ground and sat with my back resting on the rubble. As I was thinking I heard some shouting and noise coming from a tunnel off to my left. I had nothing better to do so I investigated.  
  
I walked right into another small town area with a big sign at the entrance reading 'Wall Market.' A market was just what I was looking for. I should have been able to find what I needed and been out of there before you knew it, and I would have if I hadn't walked right into a fight. I learned very quickly what the noise I had heard was. Two big men were fighting it out in the middle of the street and their buddies looked ready to get involved. A crowd was showing up and blocking the street. I tried to worm my way through the shouting people. Everyone was cheering for one man or the other. As I tried to make my around a man I was pushed from behind and instantly sent headlong into the fray. The two men were too enraged with each other to really care who they were fighting anymore and the instant I appeared they turned on me. I decided it would be better to run than hurt one of them, or to be hurt by one of them.   
  
The crowd seemed to close in on me, cutting off my escape. I turned around to size up the two men. They were both hulks and I knew that I wouldn't have a chance against them in fist-fighting so I drew Reaper out of it's sheath. The crowd began to 'oooo' and 'ahhh' now that the match was getting interesting. The man on my right raised his hand and someone tossed a baseball bat into it. The man on my fight took out a pair of iron knuckles and he looked like he knew how to use them. The man on my right came first swinging his club. I dodged the first swing and parried the second. Then I attacked with a full twirl spin that could have easily decapitated him. He held out the bat instead, hoping to stop my sword. My blade cut right threw the wood and severed the bat into two pieces. Without stopping to take a breath I continued the spin and came in low with handle of my sword. I thrust it up into his gut and heard the satisfying sound of air rapidly leaving his chest. He fell to the ground gasping for breath. Then my world turned to stars as the second man punched me in the back of the head. I stumbled and then regained my balance just in time to jump out of the way of his next charge. He overreached himself and left his back as a prime target. As I prepared to strike him on the back with the flat of my blade when he whirled around and struck me in the face once again with the back of his hand. I stumbled back as he swung at me again. Now I was angry, he wouldn't leave me alone. He was getting in my way and he wasn't going to move unless I took drastic measures. I expertly dodged the move and brought my blade down onto his wrist. The crowd grew silent as the man stumbled back, holding the stump of his left hand. He stared at me with a hurt look in his eyes before fainting onto the ground.  
  
After the fight I felt that I was not welcome and so I bought the supplies I would need and left as quickly as possible. I trudged back to the Sector 7 with all of the things that I would need in a knapsack. I climbed up to the hole and began my ascension to the upper world. For nearly a day I crawled and squirmed my way up through the tiny hole. Sometimes debris would block my path and I'd have to pry it out of the wall of rubble so that I could continue climbing. Finally I looked up and could see light up above me. It gave me new strength and I pushed my way all the way out onto the top. I shaded my eyes from the sunlight raining down on me. It had been a long time since I had seen the sky and I reveled in the warmth. I climbed down a little way and took in my surroundings. I saw that I had somehow climbed through a narrow crack between the concrete barrier wall and the huge metal plate. I looked up and far away I could see the largest building I had ever seen before in my entire life. I knew that it had to be Shinra HQ; it was as if I could remember it. I also saw that it would not be easy to get there. In front of me was an impassable field of destruction. I realized that no one could have survived the disaster and that probably several thousand people had died as the plate crushed them. The kid had told me that Shinra might have been responsible. If a company could do something like this I wondered what else they might do. They were probably not anyone I'd want to meet, but somehow I had to get into that building. I could never cross the Sector 7 plate. The wreckage had totaled everything, streets were shattered and buildings had crumbled. What's more, I thought that I could see more of those disgusting creatures scavenging in the ruins. I had to find another way up, but first I needed to rest.   
  
I sat down and took out some food. After a quick meal and a drink of water I got up and started looking. I wandered around the edge until in the distance I saw a set of large cables hanging down off of the sector above me. They came all the way down to the wreckage and I decided that they must have been pulled down during the disaster. It looked like that was going to be my best shot at getting out of this place so I started to walk towards them. After a few hours of walking the sun began to set and twilight set in. I continued to walk until I heard several screeches behind me. "O no, not again," I said to myself. The creatures had found me but this time they had numbers in their side. Over a hundred of the little beasts were following me and now they all prepared to strike. I pulled out Reaper and cut the first attacker in two. I cut and stabbed my way out of the circle they had formed around me and tossed a grenade right into the middle of the pack. The explosion threw me back onto my back and tossed little monster parts all over the place. I jumped to my feet to meet the next wave. More attacked this time than before and I decided to use my materia to stop them. I blasted, froze, and electrified four whole waves, but more just seemed to be coming and I was getting tired. Just as five of them leapt at me I activated my barrier materia and created a shield around me that stopped them in their tracks. Now that I was temporarily safe I turned to run.  
  
I tuned around to see the entire horde hot on my trail. They were surprisingly agile for snake-spiders with mouths bigger than their bodies and they were catching up quickly. I was almost to the cables when one of them jumped onto my shoulder. It hissed at me and bit deep into my shoulder. With a yell I tore it off and flung it away like a rag doll. Suddenly I was at the cables and without even stopping began to climb. I was going slowly because of my shoulder, which was bleeding badly and hurt exceedingly. I looked down to see that the monsters had started to climb up after me. They punctured the cables with their sharp legs and would jump up to a higher level. Normally I would have been able to out-climb them, but I was exhausted from the chase and I had lost a lot of blood. As they began to close in on me a plan began to form in my mind. I took out a grenade and held it up. As the closest one leapt straight at me I chucked the bomb as hard as I could right at its face. The grenade landed right in its open mouth and propelled it back down. As it fell the grenade exploded in midair, severing the cables and tearing the monsters that were climbing them to shreds. Everything beneath me fell into a giant heap of monster guts, scrap metal, and slag. I smiled as a few of the beasts began to hop around on two or three legs fewer than they were used to. Their screeches had turned to squeaks and most of them began to run, or crawl away as fast as they could. Once I knew that I was safe I began to climb again until I reached the top plate. I immediately made a bandage for my shoulder before climbing over a few Caution fences. I looked around. I had finally made it out of the slums. "Well wasn't that fun," I said to myself just before I blacked out. 


	3. A Bad Entrance

My eyes slowly opened as the haze around the edges of my vision began to fade. I could hear voices above me conversing among themselves. I pretended to still be unconscious so that I could eavesdrop.   
"I say that we slit his throat right now, take the materia and run!" said one of them. The group reaction to this idea was positive and my hand began to slide towards my sword.   
Then another voice spoke up, "Maybe we should steal his materia and leave?" The rest of them laughed and scoffed at him as I could hear knives being drawn from their sheaths. Instantly I sprang to my feet and whipped out my sword in one swift motion. A gang of punks who right then looked pretty surprised had surrounded me.   
"Get away from me," I said in a cold steady voice that was meant to intimidate.  
"Look," said the leader, "Gramps wants to fight, maybe you should get that shoulder looked at by a hospital before you try lifting that heavy sword, you might get hurt." The others laughed at this and began to close in on me.  
I grunted and focused my thoughts on my Restore materia, "I'm not going to be the one needing the hospital joker boy!" This got him really angry. The materia's power flowed through me and I could feel my shoulder healing itself, now I was ready to fight.  
"Dren, go and show this man why the Icers are the biggest, strongest, and meanest gang in Midgar!" He stepped aside as a giant of a man took his place in the semi-circle and began to approach me. He cracked his knuckles and leered at me through a mouth of broken teeth.  
"Come here little man, I'm not going to hurt you...much," He said as he drew near. With growl he lunged at me and threw one of his massive fists right in my face. I barely dodged the attack and brought my sword up, cutting him on the side. He roared and attacked me again, this time I was ready for it and jumped aside as he attacked. This time he received a nick on his cheek. His rage blinded him and he began to attack without heed to personal safety. I used this to my advantage and very soon Dren was nothing more than a walking mass of cuts and bruises. Meanwhile the leader of the Icers, or whatever they called themselves, had been getting very worried as a wasp brought down his giant champion. I jumped in to sting him and leapt aside before he could even touch me. Finally he simply stopped and looked at me as his feet began to sway. His eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed onto the pavement. I looked at the leader and saw him staring at his fallen champion in shock and amazement.  
"Come on joker, your turn," I said as a grin spread across my face. I spun my sword around and flipped it into the air as expertly as a circus performer might. I caught it with my right hand and pointed it at joker boy. "Come on and see what this old man has ready for you!"  
He threw down his knife and I hoped that he would run. Instead he pulled out a large silver pistol with a green materia locked into the side of it. "No one plays around with the Icers! I've had this ice materia since I was little and I've already gotten it up to level 2! I'm gonna blow you away!" His brows furrowed as he concentrated on it. Suddenly the air around me grew chill and I felt like icicles had just skewered me. Then it was over and the pain abated somewhat. Joker was standing with a cocky smile on his face, apparently expecting me to fall dead to the ground.  
"That was good," I said, "but now let me try!" I concentrated on the Contain materia and focused on the Freeze attack. Joker looked pretty surprised when the freezing wind started to blow around him. As he was encased in a block of solid ice the expression of shock froze with him. He posed as a pretty comical figure actually and I couldn't help but laugh. The rest of the gang took one look at me and started running like the devil himself was after them.  
I had solved the present and most obvious problem but there was still the matter of getting to Shinra HQ. I stepped out of the alley where I been laying and began to walk along the crowded and noisy streets. The buildings here were much nicer than those in the slums, and everything overall seemed considerably more prosperous. Darkness, however, seemed to hang like a shroud over the entire city so that even in the day the light never really reached the streets. Venders were advertising their wares as guards in uniform marched up and down the streets. Cars drove by and their fumes made me choke. Before long I was completely lost in the labyrinth of streets. I couldn't find so much as a map to guide me.   
I kept on walking until I heard a train whistle over the background noise. The kid had told me that I had to use the train to reach Shinra HQ so maybe I was close to a train station. It was the best lead I'd had yet so I began worming and pushing my way through the crowds in the direction of the whistle. I was proved right when I came to a platform guarded by more of the uniformed men. Behind them people were filing into the train. I didn't see a ticket booth so I just got in line with the rest of the passengers and walked right past the guards. It took some doing before I finally found a seat in the very back of the train. I heard the conductor call something out and the train began to move. It was early morning commute and many of the passengers were wearing suits. I found out to my great pleasure that the train was going directly to Shinra Station, which was right outside of the main HQ. As we neared the end of a tunnel, bright red lights on the sides of the cabin began to flash.   
I sat up to watch them out of curiosity when the loudspeaker came on, "The check point revealed an unidentified passenger, a search of the cars will commence immediately." I looked around at my fellow travelers; a look of confusion was on all of their faces. I realized that I must be the unidentified passenger! Guards had entered the cabin and were checking identification cards. One of them spotted me and began to approach.  
"Please produce your ID badge for me sir," he asked in a cold mechanical voice. I acted like I was searching through my pockets while the guard became more impatient. "Your card sir!" he asked again.  
"O man," I tried to look sincere, "I must have forgot it at home, can't you jut let it go?"  
"I'm sorry sir, but President Rufus has ordered that anyone traveling without ID is to be taken in. You don't need to worry sir, if you are telling the truth we'll simply take you down to Police HQ and look you up on the Database. If you've told me the truth you'll be issued a temporary ID badge that will allow you to get back home. If you're lying then well, lets just say that we've been ordered to be very strict in dealing with possible terrorists."  
I looked at him and let my eyes wander around the apartment. His friends were over on the other side checking cards and would not be able to react immediately to something happening over on this side of the car. Without uttering a sound I brought my knee up into his groin as hard as I could. He bent over moaning in pain as my knee came back up again right into his face. He fell over onto his back, blood squirting from his broken nose. In desperation he brought up his rifle and tried to shoot be, but I ducked to the side and grabbed hold of the barrel before he could pull the trigger. I wrestled the gun from his grasp and kicked him in the face again, knocking him out. The bystanders started to scream, the other guards looked over to see me holding a gun and standing over the body of one of their friends. The nearest one began to run towards me as the second one took aim with his rifle. Everyone fell to the floor as gunshots echoed through the cabin. Another guard came running in and was immediately dropped by several rounds. I dropped the smoking gun to the floor and made a run for the back door with the guard right behind.  
"Stop, stop!" shouted the guards as if I was going to obey them. I grabbed a briefcase from off of a seat and flung it through the window in the back of the train. As I jumped the guard grabbed onto my back and we both went sailing out of the train. We rolled and rolled and rolled down the tracks until coming to a standstill. I slowly managed to stand up on my shaky legs as my head swam. I saw the guard several yards away and I went to check on him. His neck was bent in a very awkward way and he had no pulse. I left him where he lay and began to run down the tracks. As I exited the tunnel I found myself below street level with two brick walls on either side of me. Ahead of me another tunnel began. I could hear the whistle of another train coming up from behind me. Looking around I could not see any easy way of getting out onto the street. So I spit on my hands and started to climb, it was difficult going because the bricks were close together and the wall was perfectly vertical. I was almost to the top when I saw headlights coming out of the tunnel. The train was almost on me when with one last pull of strength I was out of the train's path and out onto the street. I lay there and rested for a few moments before standing up and looking around.   
This was the cleanest part of Midgar that I had yet seen with clean office buildings and suits that were as common as cockroaches were in the slums. I figured that I probably didn't fit in but I didn't care because there above me loomed the massive building that I knew to be Shinra HQ. The distance was deceiving, although it looked like I was right underneath; it took me several hours to actually reach the front entrance. Without a second glance back I opened one of the doors and walked inside.   
It looked like I was in some sort of huge lobby. There were receptionists' desks in front of me and a lot more of those annoying guards walking around. I walked up to one of the receptionists, a small woman with one of those plastic smiles that makes you think it was practiced in the bathroom before work.   
"Hello sir and welcome to Shinra HQ, how may I help you?" she asked while somehow managing to maintain that stupid smile. I really didn't know how I should respond; I didn't even really know where I was supposed to go. Records, I remembered, were usually kept in a library of some kind.  
"Well...uh, do you have a library here?" I asked.  
"Why yes we do sir, it contains all Shinra records from before and after the war up until present day, however it is on the 62 which is off limits to tourists."  
I was getting frustrated again, "Well I need to go and look up some files there so could you please let me go up?" I asked as nicely as possible.  
"I'm sorry sir but that is completely out of the question, no unauthorized personnel are allowed up there." I noticed that her smile was getting more and more strained.  
"Really Ms. I have to get up there, its very important," I asked again, but this time she noticed my sword and her eyes opened wide in fright.  
"Sir did you know that we have a strict no weapons policy in place?" she asked.  
"No I didn't," I smiled, "but who's gonna enforce it? You?" I laughed, "So lets say that you let up to the library, hu?" I saw her hand slip beneath her desk, as I turned my head one of the guards put his hand over his earpiece and looked directly at me. This was just what I needed, more trouble. Five guards were approaching me at once as a group.   
Their leader stepped foreword, "Is there a problem here?" he asked.   
The receptionist wasn't smiling anymore, "This man insists that he be allowed into restricted levels. He is also carrying illegal weapons in this building."  
"Well now," said the guard, "that's pretty serious sir." He looked around at his comrades, "I think that you're going to need to come with us sir...for questioning." Once again I was getting pretty angry with these stupid cretins that kept on getting in my way! I saw that all of them were pointing their guns at me and that I wouldn't be able to get out of this situation without killing someone. More guards were walking towards us, I had to act now or never, so I acted. I concentrated on my Contain materia and unleashed a Flare attack into the small group. The charred bodies of the guards flew across the room. I heard someone calling for backup over the drone of machine guns. I saw twin elevators at the back of the lobby; it was my only shot so I took it. I cast Haste on myself and was running as fast as I could while trying to dodge the bullets although I was still grazed by a few. As I neared the elevator on the right I saw a guard step out of double doors. He raised his gun to take aim but I was too fast. I leapt into the air and brought the blade of sword down on his neck, effectively removing his head from his body. Blood had covered the floor making the ground slick but I stood firm and pressed the 'up' button on the control panel. The air was hot with lead and the walls were covered with bullet holes. As I stepped into the elevator I was shot in the shoulder and the side, the pain was intense and I collapsed onto the floor of the elevator. I saw the guards running towards me and with my last bit of strength I managed to push one of the level buttons. The doors closed just as the guards reached the elevator and I could hear them banging on the doors as I rose up away from them.   
I pulled out my Restore materia and used it to cure my wounds. Then I got up to see just where I was going. I had selected Floor 59, which was as high as I could get on this elevator. I was still pretty far away from getting to Floor 59 so I sat down to rest. I watched as the floors flew by on the monitor until it was finally at 59. I got up and prepared to disembark but the elevator didn't stop. I kept on going up and I was expecting some kind of ambush. The elevator stopped at 62 and the doors opened but no one was there. Curious, I stepped out to see where I was. On the wall off to the side was a plaque that read 'Archives and Records'. This was the first good thing to happen to me all day. I went to explore and found a man standing by a door. He was wearing a black and white stripped shirt and didn't look at all like a guard. I approached him and was about to ask for help but he beat me to it.   
"You must be the one the Mayor was talking about," he said. "You should go in immediately, no telling when that idiotic Shinra Security will think to look on this floor. You don't need to worry, the Mayors expecting you." I was pretty dumbfounded, what did a mayor want with me, and how did he know I was here? The man was right though, the guards would no doubt be right on my tail and I needed help if I was going to escape them. So I took a deep breath and walked through the door to see what the Mayor wanted. 


	4. Memories Regained

I walked into the office and saw a small old man standing in front of a set of television screens set into the wall. I guessed that they were connected to security cameras around the building because I could see the lobby through one of the screens. He turned around and noticed me, "Ah, yes, the man from downstairs. I am Mayor Domino, pleased to meet you."  
"What do you want," I asked.  
"Yes, I suppose that would be a reasonable question for you to ask. The truth is that I like you boy, I saw what you did to those guards downstairs and I just loved it. You see, I'm supposed to be the Mayor of Midgar, but Shinra took all of my power away and now I'm little more than a librarian. So you see, any enemy of Shinra is a friend of mine and so I am going to help you escape the guards who are even now on the floor directly below us." He moved to the wall and flicked a hidden switch that caused the wall to slide over the television screens, hiding them inside the wall. He then walked over to a couch over by the door and pulled back the seat to reveal a secret compartment inside. It was just big enough to fit a person inside and after I got in he pulled the top back over. It was just in the nick of time too. As the darkness closed in on me I could hear a muffled argument from outside. For a while I thought that the guards might break down the door and search the room with or without Domino's blessing. Eventually the talking stopped and a few minutes after that light poured into the compartment. Mayor Domino helped me out and sat me down on the same couch. He sat on the one across from me and began his interrogation. "First I want to know your name boy," he asked.  
"My name is Zack," I replied.  
He nodded and continued on, "I would also like to know what you are doing in this building anyway? Are you an AVALANCHE operative?"  
If I remembered correctly the boy had told me that AVALANCHE had been some group fighting the Shinra. Not knowing what else to do I agreed with him, "That's right, I'm part of AVALANCHE. I'm here to get some information from the archives that we need to fight Shinra. Can you help me get that information?" I asked.  
"Ha! Of course!" he said, "anything to harm Shinra. It just so happens that I have full control over the library, I can get you anything you need."  
"Excellent," I said smiling, "but I think it would be better if I were allowed to search the archive files myself."  
He shrugged his shoulders, "whatever you want, just tell me. Here," he said and placed a laptop on the table. He took a cord out of his pocket and plugged the laptop into a socket in the wall with it. "I have the whole building wired," he said with a grin, "those arrogant Shinra think I'm some sort of incompetent fool, but what they don't know can't hurt them." He laughed and then got serious again, "this laptop is now connecting you to the entire library system which I secretly saved digitally onto the Shinra Mainframe. You'll be able to find anything you want on this computer." At this he got up and began to walk to the door. "I'm going to go to the staff lounge, I don't know when I'll get back but I'll leave my assistant Hart to watch for security." He then walked out the door and I was left alone in his office.  
"Well now, lets see what we can find," I said to myself. I was at a blank screen with a single window for me to type in something for the computer to search for. I really didn't have any idea what to look for so I typed in my own name to see what would happen. I was surprised as nearly 20 pages worth of data flickered onto the screen. I started reading with the knowledge that it was going to be a very long day. When I finally looked at the clock it turned out to be late at night. I had read for over 15 hours straight without stopping. I now knew almost everything about myself that I needed to. As the knowledge poured in more and more of the fog was pulled away from my memories. I knew who I was and what had happened to me. I had left my hometown and had come to Midgar where I ended up in Shinra's elite fighting force known as SOLDIER. On a special mission with the famous Sephiroth I was horribly wounded. The archives did not say who wounded me but it talk about what happened afterwards. A fellow soldier and I had been taken by the head Shinra scientist, Hojo, and used as the first subjects in the Sephiroth Clone Project. The other soldier had been deemed a failure but the two of us escaped from the laboratory anyway. The report stated that both of us went missing while on our return journey to Midgar. I remember being attacked by a Shinra Border Patrol. They had nearly shot me to death. Somehow I had survived and had been taken inside the city where I had woken myself up from the brink of death.   
I researched SOLDIER, Sephiroth, and Hojo all in attempt to understand what they had done to me. All that I could figure out that as a SOLDIER I was infused with Mako energy and something else called JENOVA cells. There was not a single file on JENOVA, whatever it was. There was not much information on Sephiroth either which made me think that the two might be connected in some way. The thing that also interested me was the fact that so much of this happened around the small town of Nibelheim, one of the most Mako rich areas in the world.   
I was exhausted and Domino had still not come back yet and so I curled up on the couch and drifted off to sleep wondering what had happened to the other soldier that had escaped with me.  
A figure was approaching me from out of the darkness. "Aeris?" I asked. I could hear laughing as I noticed the inferno that accompanied the stranger. He walked through this firestorm as he approached me. He grew closer and closer until I could see that it was a man wearing a black cloak. He had silver hair growing down past his waist and he carried a gigantic No-Dachi blade in his right hand. His eyes were emerald green and seemed to burn intensely with an unholy light. "Who are you?" I asked in fear.  
"You know me, you can feel who I am slave," he replied in a steel cold voice. He had the air of a person who knows that they are in absolute control. He was right actually, I could feel who he was, and it was if there was a bond between him and me.  
"Sephiroth, you are Sephiroth," I said.  
"Good, for a puppet you are quite intelligent, but I have not sensed you before now. You are powerful and would have served mother well earlier in our plans. I cannot understand why I did not sense you so I will need to find out for myself, that is why I am here." He reached out his left hand, which began to glow with a white light that was at once intense and yet sickening. I felt as if someone were peering into my soul, like someone was looking into my deepest thoughts. "Ahhh," Sephiroth sneered, "I see that the girl was not satisfied with the clean death that I gave her, and even in death she tries to plague me. I am afraid that although the strength you posses would be useful to mother, I will not take the chance of the girl using you to further her own plans."  
"The girl," I asked, "you mean Aeris?"   
"Yes, I believe that was her name, it is of no concern to me. She got in my way and nearly ruined my plans before I eliminated her." He said this in an absentminded way that made me angrier than I had ever thought possible.  
"I will kill you for that," I said.  
He laughed at me, "Hardly, indeed it is going to be me killing you in order to keep the girl from interfering again." I could see his hand glow brighter and brighter. My spine arched as spasms racked my body. My teeth were clenched together and my hands balled into fists as I tried to fight the pain.  
"Is that...the best...y...you could do?" I asked mockingly between sharp breaths. His brow became wrinkled in anger and concentration. Instantly my body felt like it was being torn apart. I could not have held out much longer when a new element entered my dream. It was a single flower and it fell gracefully down between the two of us to land on the floor. It was radiating a pure light that filled my spirit with strength. Against the monstrous powers of Sephiroth the spirit of Aeris coupled with my own will began to win out. Finally Sephiroth was panting and his head hung a little lower.  
"This was only a small example of my power," he said, "when you feel the full force of mothers strength you will fall, even with the help of the Cetra girl!" I had had enough of this and I was growing tired myself.  
"Get out of my head," I growled and thrust the vision of fire from my mind. Instantly the figure of Sephiroth wavered and disappeared like smoke. I walked up to were the flower lay and picked it gently up in my hands I stared at it and thought once again of Aeris.  
I awoke with a start and almost punched the Mayor out of surprise. He was standing by my bed shaking my shoulder.  
"Hello there and good morning," he said, "I would appreciate it if you didn't knock my teeth out, especially since I brought you coffee."  
I grabbed the cup and drained the contents in one gulp; afterwards I jumped up and down fanning my tongue and trying to yell through my burned mouth.  
Mayor Domino laughed at me, "I thought you knew that it was hot. O well, we have more important things to worry about." As the Mayor talked I used Cure to heal my mouth. "You see," he said, "while I was in the lounge yesterday I overheard some officers talking about the incident you caused in the lobby. Since they were unable to apprehend you they have decided to barricade the lobby and the emergency stairs so that no one can get in or out of the building without them knowing about it. I knew that you would need to get out if you were ever going to get the information to your friends. I spent the entire night working and I finally came up with a keycard to the 69th floor. From there you should be able to walk up to the helicopter pad on the 70th floor. You can hijack a chopper there and make your escape before Shinra Security even knows what hit them." He handed me a keycard with the Shinra Insignia and the letter 69 on the front.  
"Thank you Mayor Domino, Thank you for everything you've done to help me," I said sincerely. I took the keycard and walked out of the office to the elevators.  
I opened the elevator and slipped the card through the reader before pressing the button for the 69th floor. The elevator began to move up and I let out a sigh of relief. Until then I had expected something bad to happen like it always seemed to. I really didn't know what I was going to do so I decided that I would first get out of Shinra HQ and then wait for Aeris to give me new instructions.   
The lift continued on its upward course and I saw that I was almost there. Finally the door dinged and opened. I walked out into a side room with some snack machines. I went through the only door there and came out into a main hallway leading from what looked like a set of stairs. There was another door; this one was much larger than the other ones. I pressed the button and the door slid open with a whoosh. There beyond was a large room with twin sets of stairs leading up to the floor above. I was almost out and probably could have made a clean getaway except for one problem. Apparently the curse had not yet lifted from me because standing in the room was a whole platoon of Guards and some other uniformed men who I recognized as a team of SOLDIER 3rd Class. I was almost instantly recognized and a shout went around the room.  
"Get out of my way and no one will get hurt," I yelled as I unsheathed Reaper and snarled at my surprised enemies. Instantly every weapon in the room was visible and all the soldiers were glaring menacingly at me. "O boy," I said to myself, "here we go again." 


	5. The Great Escape

One moment there was complete silence as everyone stood completely still. In one smooth motion I pulled out one of the grenades, pulled the pin and tossed into the crowd of guards. The explosion tore through their ranks and left a gap in the middle that I raced through, hacking at exposed limbs as I ran by. As I made it to the stairs I felt a sharp pain in my back. I turned around to see a SOLDIER standing behind me, gripping a bloody sword. Most of the normal guards had been killed or severely wounded in my charge and now only the strong were left to attack me. I cured myself just as 20 SOLDIER's charged forward with a yell. The first one swung his blade in an arc over my head but I ducked and thrust my own sword up through his gut. I tore it out and blocked another swing. By now I was being forced up the stairs step-by-step as I fought to stave off my attackers. As I reached the top I cast Haste on myself and ran out into a huge office area that took up the entire 70th floor. Through the windows behind the gigantic desk I could see a helicopter with its rotors spinning. The guards were right on my tail and had situated themselves between me and the door leading out to the helicopter pad. I was desperate and tired. I could hear reinforcements on the floor below. There was nothing left to do so I took a running start, used the desk as a spring board, and jumped right through the window. The guards were yelling something and I suspected were racing to catch me. A man that looked like a pilot was staring at me with surprise. I ran up to him and put the tip of my sword at his neck.  
"Can you fly that helicopter?" I asked gruffly.  
"Y, yes," he answered nervously.  
"Then get in and lets go," I ordered.  
He didn't have much choice so he got into the pilots seat and I slid in to the one next to him. He put on his helmet and pushed a few buttons before pulling back on the control stick. We lifted off the helo-pad just in time. I could see the guards running to where we had been only seconds before, some even tried to grab the chopper. I sighed and relaxed, thinking that I was home free, wrong again! The guards were shooting at us and the pilot was busy trying to control the shaky chopper.  
"Do something will ya?!" he yelled at me. "This is an executive helicopter, not an army gunship!" I took out my last grenade and flung it down onto the pad. This time the guards were ready for it and most managed to jump out of the way. The chaos that ensued gave us enough time to fly out of range. "Where do you want to go?" he asked, still nervous.  
"I don't know, I just wanted out of there," I motioned towards Shinra HQ.  
"Well you better think of something fast before they release the attack choppers on us," he said. As he said this a missile shrieked past the front of the helicopter. "Too late!" he yelled, "we're getting out of here now!" Flack and rockets whizzed past us but the pilot always managed to avoid danger. We flew south out of Midgar, bobbing and weaving to escape the gunships. I looked out the window and saw that we were over a desolate wasteland that seemed to surround the city. In front of us was a large mountain range.   
"Why are you heading for the mountains?" I asked.  
"We might be able to give our friends the slip, these helicopters were designed for maneuverability. There are not many choppers that can operate beneath the plates and this is one of the few that can. We should be able to run circles around those monsters," he motioned behind us, "once we get into the mountains." He was the pilot so I didn't argue. As we neared the mountain range he made a sharp descent straight down into one of the mountain paces. The enemy followed. We made many twists and turns, eventually forcing several of the hunters out of the chase. We came to a sharp turn that caught one of the choppers flowing us on the rotor. Immediately the helicopter disintegrated, I even saw what remained of the pilot fall down into the ravine below. We now only had two pursuers, but they appeared to be elite. They would not back down and did make any mistakes. Eventually we flew out of the mountains and I could see the sea in front of us. A large city was down below us and it looked like a giant cannon was resting on it. "That's Junon Harbor!" the pilot yelled. We were coming in low and I realized that he was trying to land on the huge airfield that was resting on top of huge girders and steel columns. It rose above the sea floor so it could be better connected to Junon. As the skids were about to touch the ground a rocket hit the ground underneath us and several bullets tore through the chopper. "We're hit!" he yelled, "the landing gear is totaled and they're still attacking I have to try and get out of here!" He pushed down on the joystick and we began to soar only a few feet over the airfield. As we approached the edge the pilot yelled something that I couldn't hear. Then the second rocket hit us. The entire back of the helicopter was blown away and we began to skid along the runway. For a moment I thought that we might stop, but then we were out in open air. We were falling, falling, falling; I closed my eyes and waited for the end as the ground loomed up below us.  
I slowly rose to my feet among the wreckage. My legs were shaky and my head was spinning, I wasn't even sure I was alive. I heard noise above me and looked up to see the two attack choppers coming in to attack again. I looked down and saw that the pilot was unconscious. It was all up to me now and I could not afford to fail. As the chain guns on the side of the gunships lit up I erected a wall around the chopper, protecting the pilot and myself. The bullets nearly shattered my barrier and left the glassy surface of my wall cracked in several places. I knew even before the choppers turned around that my wall would not withstand another attack and there was no place to run to. The attack choppers fired on us again, this time my barrier broke and bullets tore through my body.   
I was a bloody mess lying on the ground and only barely managed to heal myself with a Cure3. As I rose to my feet again I could feel a new kind of power growing within me, a force I had not yet experienced. It felt as if it was coming directly from inside me, pushing me to unleash its wrath on my enemies. I let go and let it go in one mega-attack that shook the earth and nearly blinded me. A gigantic ball of seething plasma formed around my body. My vision was red and hazy so that all I could see were the two helicopters coming in to attack again. With a feral scream I unleashed my attack in a blinding flash that almost knocked me unconscious. When my sight began to return I looked around expecting the helicopters to attack again. Instead, all that I saw was a huge hunk of burning slag off in the distance with what looked like a rotor blade sticking out towards the sky. I was totally drained. I rummaged around in my bag of supplies and used an Ether and a Hi-Potion to boost my strength. With a heave I threw the unconscious body of the pilot over my shoulder and started walking back towards Junon while I still had the strength the walk. I was becoming dizzy and my step faltered. I was kneeling on the ground, but before I fainted I saw someone, or something approaching from a distance.  
I could not be sure how long I was asleep, but when I woke I was lying in a clean warm bed in a small but cozy house. My head was still spinning and the voice was still ringing in my ear. The voice had come while I was asleep, it had talked to me, but for some reason I actually hadn't heard anything audible. I couldn't remember exactly what it had said, something along the lines of what the Sephiroth specter had told me. It had said that it was my subconscious, and that I was simply trying to tell myself the truth. I was more confused now than ever before. I could not be one of Sephiroth's slaves could I? And I wanted to know what JENOVA had to do with anything. What got me really depressed was that Aeris still had not shown up, and now I had no idea what to do. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and got up with a long groan as I stretched. I walked over to a sink and splashed water on my face. It occurred to me as I looked into the mirror, that I should probably shave soon if I didn't want a beard. With another groan I shuffled out the door and walked into town. The village was small and obviously poor. I saw some fish skeletons lying around and the smell of salt water saturated the place along with another scent, which I could not place. As I walked up the street an old man walked out of a door, "O my, so you're finally up young man. Good thing we got you into town as soon as we did, you were pretty wasted and the Shinra patrols went through that field with a fine-toothed comb. Yesire, you are one lucky boy, would you like to come in?" He motioned towards the door he had just walked out of and I followed.  
"Where am I?" I asked.  
"Why, you're in Junon," he replied.  
"I though that the city was Junon," I said, somewhat confused.  
"No," he growled, "Those dirty Shinra built that city right on top of this one, didn't you notice the airfield? They erected it directly over our town, polluting everything." I had not looked up at the sky since waking up so I walked to the window and looked up. My host was correct; the sky was covered up by a huge flat piece of metal which was held up by gigantic steel columns. It reminded me of being in the slums again. I now recognized the scent; it was the stench of refuse and oil.  
"So that's why this town is so rundown," I said. "But why have you treated me with such kindness?"  
He smiled, "because you brought Lance back."  
"Lance who?" I asked, "Who's Lance?"  
"Why Lance is the name of the pilot you saved, the Shinra took him many years ago to train him because he exhibited excellent flying skills. By the way, thank you so much, his little sister Priscilla is like a granddaughter to me, and you have made her so very happy. They have not seen each other in a long time." He was beaming, "Ah, here they are now." I looked over to see the pilot, Lance, carrying a little girl in a swimsuit on his shoulders. They were both laughing together and looked so happy that I couldn't help but smile myself. Lance didn't look the worse for wear, a few cuts and bruises and a bandage wrapped around his head.  
He looked at me, "Hello Mr. Hijacker, thanks for saving me but could you perhaps tell us your name?"  
"My name is Zack, pleased to meet you under these happier conditions," we shook hands and sat down at the table.  
"Well Zack," said the old man, "perhaps you could tell us what in the name of fried swordfish that attack was you used on those helicopters. We probably wouldn't have found you soon enough if it hadn't been for that blinding flash."  
My memory started to clear a little, "It was my level 3/2 Limit Break, and I call it Holy Flare."  
"Well whatever you call it, that was sure some fireworks show, you must be really strong to have a Limit Break that powerful," the old man said. He looked me straight in the eye and a look of surprise crossed his face, "why no wonder, you've got mako eyes! You're in SOLDIER!"  
"Was in SOLDIER," I said, "I have no affiliation with Shinra anymore, not after what they did to me."  
Lance spoke up, "Well whomever you worked for I sure am glad you got me out of that place, the only reason I stayed was because they threatened to destroy this town if I left. Now that I got kidnapped they have no one to blame but themselves." He smiled and tussled the hair of his little sister.  
"You must be some pilot for them to pay so much attention to you," I said.  
He smiled and straightened his shirt, "I'm the best, I was President Shinra's personal pilot until Sephiroth killed him and Rufus demoted all of his father's head staff, including me."  
"Thank you for everything," I said, "but I really need to be going."  
"Don't be silly," said the old man, "It's almost night out and you look exhausted, stay and rest one more night. You can leave tomorrow morning once you're rested."  
There was no point to arguing, the old man had made up his mind and I was still tired so I stayed one more night. I talked with Lance and the old man, whom everyone called gramps. I learned some interesting things about what was happening in the world. Apparently President Rufus had begun to search for a place called the Promised Land near a huge glacier on the northern continent. I went to bed early and wondered if the voice would return tonight. I indeed had a visitor, but this one was more welcome. It was Aeris; it had taken her longer to regain her strength than expected. We talked about many things. I wanted to tell her about the voice but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it. Finally we got to her instructions.  
"Where should I go?" I asked her.  
"I need you to head southeast from here, there you will find a canyon were you will encounter a friend who will help you on your journey," she said.  
"But Shinra is heading north, shouldn't I follow them?" I asked.  
"No," she said, "I have someone taking care of that situation, although he will fail, the experience will make him stronger. He will need all the strength he can get if he is to defeat the horrible enemy that threatens us all," she was frowning and seemed very sad.  
"You mean Sephiroth right?" I asked.  
Her frown grew deeper, "Not necessarily, there are things in this world that can manipulate and twist a persons mind. Sephiroth was the victim of a falsified life were no one could be trusted except himself. I do not blame him for what he did, and you shouldn't either. To destroy this evil we must strike at the root, then the rest will die."  
"What's the root?" I asked.  
"I'm not sure yet," I know it has something to do with the 'calamity from the sky', an ancient being of evil that destroyed my ancestors. I think that Hojo may have released it from its prison. If this is the case we are all in more danger than you could possibly imagine. I must go soon Zack so I will leave you one piece of advice, trust Lance, he is an honest and worthy man who can aid you on your quest." With this her spirit drifted off in the mist and I was left to slumber. 


	6. Dark Summoning

I woke up early the next day and went out to walk around. I eventually made my way down to the beach where I looked out into the ocean and though about what I was going to do. I was going to have to cross the ocean and that meant transportation. Unfortunately I was somewhat lacking in this area and did not know how to fix this problem. Aeris had told me to trust Lance; he was a pilot so maybe he would know a way. I walked back up into town and walked up the long set of stairs to the house shared by Lance and Priscilla. I knocked on the door and hoped that it wasn't too early for him. I heard some mumbling from inside and stumbling about. Finally the door opened and Lance peered out. It looked like he had just gotten up. "Hu, wha...o Zack its just you. You wanna come in, Priscilla's out and I think there's something to eat around here." I thanked him and walked into the house. It was nice and cozy with a bunk bed over to one side. He motioned towards a chair. "You can sit down if you want," he said.  
"Thank you Lance but if it's too early I really can come back later."  
"No, no," he replied, "I'm usually up earlier than this, its just that the whole escape and freefall crash kind of put it out of me." He grinned and I saw that he just joking.   
I laughed and then got serious, "You're probably wondering why I'm here?"  
"The thought had crossed my mind," he said as he dug through a cabinet and pulled out a loaf of bread.  
"I need your help Lance," I said, "I need to know how to get transportation across the ocean." He had sliced the bread into four pieces and was placing them in a toaster.  
"I guess saving your butt wasn't enough hu? Well if you want to get across the ocean I'd go up to the city. It's the base of the Shinra Military and it usually has a cargo ship docked there that you could stowaway on."  
"I need something better than that," I said. "I really need something that can travel fast and that I have control of." The toast popped and he began to spread butter on them.  
He looked up thoughtfully, "I think you're looking for a plane then, they can go a lot faster than any helicopter and I think I know where we can find one to suit your purpose."  
He handed me a plate with two pieces of toast on it, "What do you mean by 'we'," I asked.   
"I mean that I'm coming with you," he replied, "here I'm a danger to the whole village. If Shinra finds me here they'll destroy everything. Besides, you're not going to be going anywhere in a plane without a pilot, and who's the only pilot around who you can trust? It's me, and besides, you saved my life back at the crash and this is the least I can do to repay you."  
I could see that his mind was made up and Aeris had told me to trust him, so we began preparations to leave. We left strict instructions with gramps to not tell anyone that we had been here. Priscilla didn't take it very well; she wanted to come with her brother. Luckily he managed to persuade her to stay, but this still didn't keep her from crying. We were in his house again making our final preparations when I noticed he had no weapon. "Lance," I said.  
"Ya, what," he replied as he rummaged through his knapsack.  
"This is the Shinra we're going up against, shouldn't you have a weapon?" I asked.  
"O yes, I almost forgot! Thanks Zack," he walked over to a chest and opened it. He pulled out a fake bottom and hefted a light machine gun. "This was my fathers before he died in the war. Shinra's forbidden the carrying of weapons by civilians, but that doesn't stop me. This is a totally modified T-4X Death Claw. It was originally a medium assault weapon that used conventional ammo. I took it and replaced the old system with a new pulse ammo kit, which I stole from a Shinra armory. This baby can pump out more laser energy than most heavy Shinra cannons, and it all fits under my jacket." With this he put the gun underneath his flight jacket.  
"Wow," I said, "not bad. What do you have in the way of materia?"  
He took out a leather bag and began to attach the little orbs to his weapon. "I have a Mastered Lightning, a Manipulate at level2, and a Comet materia that I received from my father, it has never been used but is supposed to be very powerful."  
"Then I guess we're set, lets go say goodbye and then we'll leave."  
We walked out of the house and down the stairs. Gramps was waiting for us in the road, "It was good to see you again Lance, and it was a pleasure meeting you Zack. Before you leave I do have a present for you." We looked anxiously as he pulled two bracelets out of a bag at his waist.  
"What are these?" I asked.  
"These are Carbon Bangles, they're gifts from the weapon shop owner. He says that he wishes you good luck and that this armor should help you."  
I took the armor and slipped it onto my arm, and instantly I felt stronger. It was as if my body was actually tougher and more solid in its construction. "Thank him for us will you gramps," I asked him.  
"Of course," he said, "and by the way, your Carbon Bangle has two linked Materia slots and one separate one just in case you get more materia."  
We thanked him again and walked out of town towards the huge door that led up to the main city. As we approached it a guard stepped out and stood in our way.  
"No civilians are allowed up this lift without authorization so the two of you will need to step back," he ordered.  
"Wait a sec," replied Lance, "how do you know we don't have authorization and how do you know we're civilians. For all you know we might be undercover military operatives who have top-secret information for President Rufus and because of you're bungling he might not get it in time!"   
The guard was looking really uncomfortable now, "are you Shinra agents with secret information?" he asked nervously.  
Lance laughed, "No, but it just goes to show you that you need to be more careful when judging people!"  
The guard was glaring at us now and fingering his radio and gun. I stepped in, "Excuse me sir, but my friend and I would really appreciate it if you let us up." I flashed twenty gil in front of his face.  
"Of course sir," he accepted the money. "Step right on." He pressed a button on the wall and the door opened. We walked in and stepped onto a large lift while the guard continued to glare menacingly at Lance. Lance pulled a lever on the control panel and we started to move up.  
"You shouldn't have done that Lance," I said.  
"Why, I was just having some fun," he replied.  
"You're fun could have gotten us killed, that guard could have called for backup and then we'd be dealing with an entire garrison right now instead of sneaking into Junon."  
He lowered his head and glared at the floor. "I mean it Lance, you were the one that wanted to come, we're on a mission right now and we need to be careful." He brightened at the word mission.  
"What kind of mission?" he asked curiously.  
"We my friend, are going to help a friend of mine to save the world," I said.  
Lance burst out laughing, "We're going to save the world?! How do you plan on doing that?"  
"My friend tells me what to do," I replied, suddenly realizing where this conversation was going to go.  
"And who is your friend and why isn't he here?" he asked.  
I cringed at this question. "Well," I said, "you probably won't believe me but my friend is a girl named Aeris and she isn't here because she's dead." He blinked and I waited for the hysterical laughter to begin.   
He shook his head and sighed, "you are one crazy guy and you're probably going to get me killed, but I can see that you're serious. So if you think that a dead girl is telling you save the world, well then by all means follow her directions. By the way, where has this Aeris girl told you to go after you get across the ocean?"  
Lance had really surprised me with his maturity and it took me a moment to reply, "it's a large canyon to the far Southeast."  
"Sounds like Cosmo Canyon to me," he said. "Once we get a plane we'll head there." The elevator stopped and we walked off, "Now all we need is a way of getting a plane."  
We walked around a curve in the corridor and walked outside. I found myself standing on the huge airfield I had seen from the air. Soldiers and Robot Guards were walking all over the place.  
"How are we going to get a plane here?" I asked.  
"We'll think of something," Lance replied with more assurance than I think he had.  
As he said this the world grew totally silent. The graveyard of an abandoned church at midnight could not have been more quite. And like that the world was torn apart by a light so bright that it felt like my eyelids were being burned off. An ear-piercing screech sliced through the air and flung me to the ground.  
When I finally got up I saw many of the Robot Guards twitching on the ground while the human soldiers ran around shouting things in their radios. A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me up to a standing position. It was only Lance. "What was that?!" I yelled over the ringing in my ears.   
"Don't know but it came from the north. It doesn't matter cause this'll give us the chance we need." We ran across the airport towards a metal hanger at the far end. We walked up to it and found a steel door with the name Formula written on top.  
Lance pulled out his machine gun and blew away the lock on the door before opening it. Inside was a large blue aircraft that I guessed to be the Formula. "This," Lance said, "is the most perfect machine ever made. It was my design and I helped to build it. Its called the AF-7 Formula, named after a bird like creature that lives around this area. It is one of the fastest planes ever made and has vertical takeoff ability. With a weapons load that rivals that of many heavy bombers it is the best aircraft Shinra has ever developed, and now its ours." He ran over to the wall while I got into the gunners seat.  
"You sound like a salesman!" I yelled at him with a grin on my face. He laughed and flipped a switch on the wall. The roof of the hanger began to fold back on itself, revealing the sky above. My breath caught in my throat as I looked out at the sky because deep red light was now pouring into the hanger. Lance ran back and got into the pilots seat. The canopy closed and he turned the airplane on and made some preflight checks. I put on my headset in time to hear his question, "What do you think is causing the red light?"  
"I don't know," I replied, "maybe we'll see when we get out of here."  
The fighter started up with a whir and began to rise right out of the hanger. When we were above the hanger I began to look around for what was going on.  
"What the heck is that!" yelled Lance through the comm-link. I looked up and saw a ball of burning rock in the sky above us. "It looks like a meteor or something," he said, a little calmer now.  
"Maybe I'm not so crazy now," I said a little sarcastically.  
"Listen man," Lance replied, "After this I'll do anything your dead lady friend wants, just so long as that Thing doesn't crash into the planet."   
I grinned, "I'm sure that she's happy to hear it Lance."  
With that we flew off towards the new continent and Cosmo Canyon, our plane disappearing below the horizon. 


	7. Awakening of the Beast

We were flying over the blue pristine waters of the ocean. As the hours went by Lance and I started to talk. He told me about his childhood and how Shinra had destroyed everything by threatening him into submission. I told him about what I remembered from my past, even about what Hojo did to me. Finally both of us fell silent to digest the knowledge we had just gained. I stared out of the cockpit because I was in the gunners seat and didn't have anything to do. I watched the beautiful green waves of the sea roll beneath us. The sun was just beginning to set and its red rays seemed to intertwine with those of the fiery ball that loomed overhead. In the distance I saw a green line rise above the waves. "Land straight ahead," said Lance over the comm. link. "Shinra has a military position at the town up ahead. Its name is Costa del Sol and we're going to fly to the south of it and then up again to avoid being spotted."  
With this the plane turned south and we began to fly parallel to the beach for many miles. It was very late and I began to nod as sleep overcame me. I turned my head and looked up at the sky at twilight. I realized that it would be a full moon that night. I put this thought aside and settled into my seat, trying to find the most comfortable position to sleep in. As I was falling asleep I heard someone yelling and could see lights flashes from beneath my closed eyelids. Lance was the one yelling over the intercom and the flashing lights turned out to be balls of energy flying around us. "Something in the water's firing at us" screamed Lance. I thought it was a boat and looked down to try and spot it. Instead I saw a massive green creature poking its head from out of the black ocean waters. It was shooting at us with weapons on the side of its body.  
"What is that?!" I yelled to no one in particular.   
"How should I know?" Lance yelled back. "All I know is that its aim is improving and we can't outrun it. I'm going to fly over land, if we fly north from here we should reach Cosmo Canyon, and we should be able to loose that monster over land." We turned off our main course and began to fly for land. Lance's idea worked, the sea monster didn't follow us onto the beach, but stayed and continued to shoot at us as we made our escape. Just as it looked like we had made it I felt a jolt in the back of the plane. "It nicked us in the rear but we should make it to Cosmo Canyon. Look!" he yelled, "there's the canyon up ahead."  
In the light of the moon I could see a barren desert like region with several large canyons laid out across the area. In the corner of my eye I saw a beacon of green light. It was small but intense and in the darkness it shone with a heavenly glow. "Head towards the light Lance!" I called back to him.  
"What are you crazy," he said. "That's in the middle of the canyon, we're going for the actual town up on that plateau."  
"Head for the light," I ordered him once again, "and I thought we'd already established that I was crazy?"  
"Alright, alright," he gave in, "but I'm warning you it's going to be a bumpy ride, our rear stabilizer took the brunt of that last hit." We flew in low and I could actually see individual rocks on the ground. Suddenly the earth dropped out below us and we were over the canyon. I grabbed hold of my seat as Lance lowered the planes engines for the vertical landing. The plane started to jerk back and forth violently as we descended. My head whacked the top of the canopy and for a moment I thought we would crash into the canyon wall. Just when I thought I was going to get shaken apart I felt a jolt go through the plane and the thud of the landing gear touching down. The canopy opened and I stumbled out. Both Lance and I fell down on our knees to let the dizziness pass. When we were both recovered we got up and looked around. "Hey Zack," he said, "That green light is coming from off in that direction." It was so we went to investigate. We climbed over a pile of rocks and slid down to a lower level of the canyon. The light was coming from a small alcove off to the side and we approached it with caution. We walked out from behind a section of broken rock and found ourselves staring at a figure obscured by shadows. I walked closer to get a good look while Lance stayed behind. As I approached the darkness seemed to lift from the stranger like a bird taking flight. There stood Aeris, smiling at me pleasantly. She opened up her hands, revealing the pulsing green light that had led us to this place. Her image began to fade almost immediately but she fought the pull long enough to say one thing, "Find him here." She pointed her hand over to the left of us, and then she was gone and only the mist remained. I turned around and walked back to Lance who had gone pure white and looked like he had just seen a ghost. I laughed at this and decided that technically he had.  
"I'm guessing by the look on your face that you saw her," I said.  
"Ya," he replied, "was that Aeris?"  
"Yes it was," I said. "What did you think of her," I asked.  
"Real strange man, that was just so weird, it looked like she was wearing that shadow like, like it was a jacket or something. Then she just melted away into smoke or mist or something." He seemed real shaken up. "What did she mean?" he asked.  
"Mean by what?" I asked.  
"By the 'find him here' thing," he replied.  
"I think she was talking about the person we're supposed to find in this place," I said. "She pointed off in that direction so I'll go over and check it out. You go back and try to fix the plane Lance."  
"Ha," he sniffed, "I'll have that plane fixed, you just be sure not to fall down some crevasse or onto a cactus."  
I smiled and began to walk in the direction Aeris had pointed. It was not easy going. The canyon walls were steep and there were many boulders blocking the path. There were several caves along the trail but I did not dare to go into them for fear of the strange twisted figures I could see flitting around the entrances. I was finally lost, I had no idea which way I had turned last and all the paths began to look the same. I sat down and tried to think of a way out of this one. I looked up and saw the huge moon looming over the sky, its silvery rays outdoing the doom glow of the fireball. But within the white circle I saw a thin line, I stood up and looked closely at this marvel. It appeared to be a trail of smoke and it looked like its origin was close to where I was. I had nothing else to do but to try and find out where the smoke was coming from. I went down several twists and turns and through some very narrow tunnels until I stood in one of the wider gullies I had seen. The smoke was coming from what looked like a hut, which was carved directly into the rock face. A very narrow set of stairs led from the canyon floor up to the hut. I used these and was soon standing in front of the hut. It had been built of adobe brick and plaster and did not appear to be the home of anyone wealthy or anyone who wanted visitors.  
Nevertheless I needed directions and this person might be able to help me so I got up my courage and knocked. There was some bustling on the inside and something that sounded like squeaks. Someone was mumbling and then I heard something crash. There was silence for a long time, so long that I thought about turning around and going back to try and find my own way. Before I could do this the door began to creak open and I saw what looked like a face peak out. It was wearing strange, tattered, but colorful clothes that had many beads and small bits of bone hanging off of them. The hood he wore obscured his face in shadow and only revealed his glowing red eyes. "What do you want?" it asked in a high squeaky voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.   
"Um, sir," I asked, "I need directions, well actually a guide and I was wondering if you could help."  
"It says it wants help, it says it wants a guide," the creature appeared to be talking to itself, "but it is from the town and they be the enemies."  
"Sir," I said, "I'm not from any town around here and I certainly don't want to be your enemy."  
The creature growled, "how do we know if you aren't a townsfolk, the townsfolk hate us, they want to destroy us."  
"I don't have any proof," I said. "My plane was shot down and I was looking for someone who could lead me through the canyon."  
"Was it the town that shot you down?" it asked, suddenly very curious.  
"I don't know what shot us down, whatever it was it attacked so fast I barely got a look at it," I replied.  
"Sounds like townsfolk weapon, they are bad those townsfolk," it said. "You a victim of townsfolk and old floaty man. You come inside and Ger'adu will help you!" He quickly motioned me into his house and I accepted his invitation. We sat in the small one room house and he set a cup of strong smelling brown liquid in front of me. "Drink," he said, "drink and then we talk." I thanked him for his generosity and gulped the liquid down. It burned at the back of my throat and it left a very strange and tangy aftertaste but wasn't all that bad. I sat back and he filled my cup again. After three drinks I was completely relaxed and ready to ask for his help.   
Before I could start the creature started talking, "You are friend so I will tell you story." I didn't want to offend it so I nodded and listened. "We, Ger'adu were not always this way. We once great warrior of the Gi Tribe. We attack town because great leader say that they were making the gods angry with their fire that always burns. So one of us, a spy, he put out the fire and dropped the protective spell the flames had for the town. We attacked but the canyon guardians, great red beasts that nearly tore poor Ger'adu in half, they stopped us before we could get into town. So great leader took some of us best warriors around the back through the caves to attack from below town. Then the champion guardian appeared. He kept Gi from getting through the pass and killed great leader." With this he grew very silent and I felt that I would like to know one of these canyon guardians. Then he brightened up and began to giggle like a little girl, "but when he killed great leader we killed him full of Gi poison arrows. Froze him solid we did, into stone we did so that he could never fight again. Then we take vengeance on the others for beating us. We kill the rest for we were strong and they were few. In the end," he said, "We were only survivor. Town still stood untouched and great leader was dead so we hid in canyon where they never find old Ger'adu!" He began to laugh again and I realized that this creature was not entirely sane.  
"I see," I said and tried to act sincere, "You are strong, stronger than any canyon guardian." I could see that the flattery pleased him.  
"You right!" it agreed. "Gi are strongest tribe in whole world. Since you see this we think you not that stupid so we decide to help."  
"Good," I said, "I am looking for someone who lives around here but I got lost as you know and I thought you might help me."  
He sat and scratched his head in confusion," no one live out here cept old Ger'adu."  
Suddenly its eyes grew wide, "you don't mean Him do you?" it asked and could see that it was becoming nervous.  
"Him who?" I asked but it seemed to have already made up its mind. It was pacing around the cabin and mumbling to itself. Finally it seemed to come to some decision and it approached me.  
"You want us to take you to him," it said, "but that very dangerous and so we need pay."  
"Fair enough," I replied, "just name your price."  
"Ah," it said, "it thinks we just want money. No," it said, "we want you to buy something from us that has been a source of worry for long time."  
"Alright," I said cautiously. It opened a box and pulled out a small sack.  
"This," it said, "is very powerful medicine. I stole it from bad old man in town for it was us that was spy who put out fire. We stole this from old man as gift to great leader, but then great leader die and we left to take care of it. We are thinking that old man is searching for it even to this day. We can feel him looking for it and we knows that he won't stop at anything to find it. Old floaty man can't find old Ger'adu or we be killed. So you buy this from us and take it away and we take you to him."  
"Wait, wait, wait," I stepped in, "just what is this medicine anyway?"  
"Old man call it something..."it scratched its head again, "it called Mega-Soft."  
"What does it do?" I asked, getting a little frustrated with this creature.  
"Who knows," it replied, "not us, but we warn you, it not cheap!"  
"Nothing ever seems to be," I replied and dropped a whopping hundred thousand gil on the table." The creature eyed the money hungrily and licked its lips with lust.  
"Ok then," it gave me the sack, "we take you to see him."  
I put the Mega-Soft in my bag and then we walked out the door into the night. The creature ran ahead of me in the darkness. The moon was still overhead and loomed over the entire valley. Several times I had to run to catch up with the creature for fear that it would leave me behind. Finally we began to walk up a slope and around a windy twisty path that was actually pretty clear of debris. The creature walked around a turn and halted. I walked up behind him and he bade me to keep silent. I could see that he was listening for something but I did not know for what. When he had satisfied himself we walked foreword out onto the top of a plateau. In front of us the ground dropped away into a deep chasm and on a rocky promontory at the edge of the cliff sat the largest, fiercest beast I had ever seen. I approached it but the guide would not come near it. It turned out that the beast was actually made out of stone. Then I remembered the creature's story, "is this the champion you talked about?" I asked. The thing seemed paralyzed with fear but it managed a nod. I looked closer for it was huge indeed. It's shoulder reached to my chest and it had a large mane that stuck out from the back of its neck. It was wearing some sort of headdress made out of feathers and it appeared that it had possessed many tattoos before it was frozen. I could see the twisting swirling lines on its body, as they were a darker color. I could also see the many arrows sticking out of him in many directions, they too had turned to stone the poison of the Gi had been so potent.   
This was surly the other person spoken of by Aeris, I could hardly think of that disgusting Gi creature being of any help. Then I had a thought. I turned to the guide, "how strong was that medicine you gave me?" I asked.  
"It be very strong," he said, "one of the strongest in the world. It very rare, you hold only one in world in your sack."  
"And you're sure you don't know what a Mega-Soft does?" I asked again.  
"No," it replied, "but we tell you that a normal Soft supposed to cure paralysis. They're many Softs sold northeast of here for there many creatures that live there that turn things to stone, and a few south of here too."  
My spirits lightened, "turned to stone you say." I turned back to the statue as I made up my mind what to do. My guide wasn't stupid either and he figured out very quickly what I was planning to do.  
"No!!!" he screamed, "you must not free him! He'll eat you he will! He almost kill us and he'll kill you for sure! You can't!"  
I could see that his claws were very large and his teeth looked very sharp and I began to grow apprehensive. I could hear the creature screaming in the background and decided that if it didn't want me to do something than I better do it. I untied the bag of medicine and held it over the statue. With a last sigh of resignation I let the contents of the bag fall on the beast. A fine white powder trickled from the bag and onto the things back. At first it just sat there and I began to wonder if my plan might fail. Then I could see a faint glow. The glow grew brighter and more intense as the stone began to melt off the beast and a long mournful howl rent the air. I turned to look at my guide but the creature was long gone and all that I could hear were his panicked shrieks. I turned my attention back to the beast. When the last drop of molten slag had dropped off his body he shook his beautiful red fur coat and growled deeply with pleasure. He stretched and then stared at me and I at him. To my surprise he was the one to break the silence.  
"Hello," he said.  
"Um...hello," I replied quite surprised, "uhhh, you talk?"  
"Of course I talk," he said, "I'm not some dumb animal."  
"Of course not," I apologized.  
"I suppose that I have you to thank for freeing me," he asked.  
"Yes, I suppose," I replied.  
"Thank you, thank you for saving me," he said. "I am the warrior Seto and as the code of my order states, you now own my soul until I can repay the life debt. By the way, what is your name?"  
If I was surprised before I was dumbfounded now. I didn't know what to say, "Well Seto, I think we should head back to my plane first and see how my friend is doing. Then we can talk about all this life debt stuff and get everything sorted out, and my name is Zack"  
He smiled at this, or at least it looked like a smile. "I suppose so Zack, where is your plane?" he asked.  
"That's just the thing," I said, "my guide ran off when you were coming back and now I have no idea where I am."  
Seto laughed at this, "I have lived in these canyons all my life and I know them like the back of my paw. Do not worry for I can smell the scent of machinery over in that direction. We should leave immediately, strange things rise from that crevasse at night." He motioned beyond to the fissure that he had stood above. And so we walked into the night with the warrior Seto leading the way. 


	8. Rose Colored Blade

Seto had been leading the way for several hours now, always sniffing the ground and looking for clues so as to find the trail. After hiking hard the entire night we finally walked out over a hill and found ourselves overlooking a small area of flat land. In the middle of the grove sat the Formula and Lance. He noticed us almost immediately and motioned us forward. As we got closer he came to meet us, although he welcomed me warmly he seemed a little apprehensive around Seto. "Welcome back Zack," he greeted me with a smile on his face. "You made it back just in time, I fixed the Formula and was just about ready to leave without you...coffee?"   
"Yes please," I replied, "and it's a good thing you didn't leave, I found our friend." I motioned towards Seto and Lance looked a little confused.  
"So this is our companion hu?" He reached down to pet Seto on the head but fell down on his back when Seto reproved him.  
"Please refrain from petting me human. You are I take it, Zack's friend, therefore I will forgive your horrible rudeness and introduce myself...I am the warrior Seto and am the chief guardian of Cosmo Canyon," stated Seto with a frankness that made me grin. When I saw the surprise on Lance's face my grin grew to a full-blown smile.  
"Ah..." stuttered Lance, "y...you can talk?"  
"Of course I can talk, did you think I was just some sort of animal?" replied Seto.  
"Of course not," managed Lance as he got to his feet, "I'm Lance, expert pilot and recent friend of Zack."  
Seto nodded his head, "it is good to meet you Lance. Now the three of us should be thinking about leaving soon, before the specters find us."  
"Specters?!" shouted Lance, "you mean like ghosts!?"  
"Something like that," replied Seto, "Zack and I were followed last night and I have no doubt that the ghosts will soon be alerted to our presence."  
"Followed?" I asked, "I didn't see anyone following us."  
Seto shook his head, "they were much too clever to let us see them, but I could still smell them, whoever they were. Out this deep in the canyon nothing can survive that hasn't allied itself with the Gi specters. I was the Gi's best-kept secret and I am sure they will put a high price out for the head of the one who freed me."  
Lance began stuffing supplies into the plane and shouted back at us, "come on, come on, come on lets get moving! I don't want to meet no ghosts!" We began helping him to pack up when an ear-piercing scream flew through the canyon.  
"That would be the specters," said Seto, the calm expression on his face giving way to a flicker of anger and ferocity. We doubled our efforts but there was no way we'd be able to outrace the oncoming specters so Seto and I took up defensive posts in front of the Formula while Lance continued to prep the plane for launch. We stood there awaiting the enemy, I looked over and watched as a change seemed to come over Seto. Before he had appeared cold, calm, and collected but now his eyes were glowing red and his long tail whipped fiercely back and forth. His lips curled back and revealed a row of long, sharp, serrated teeth.   
"What kind of materia do you have?" I asked him.  
He didn't even turn his head, "a Fire, Sense, Time, Shield, and Mega-all...and they're all mastered." The power staggered me, he must have been one of the best in his day to have materia that strong. As I was contemplating this the ground around seemed to vibrate and I could see small pebbles bouncing around. A deep drone filled my ears and at first I thought it was the oncoming specters, but then I realized the sound was coming from Seto. The growl was primeval to the core, it seemed to awaken the feral spirit that had been trapped for so long in solid rock. With wild howl Seto cast Haste on himself and charged the dark shape that loomed out of the valley in front of us. I ran after him to meet the monstrosity that was attacking us. It loomed into the air clutching a huge cruel looking spear, it wore the colorful garb that I had seen Ger'adu wearing, and its face was obscured by shadows. As I rushed forward I could hear high-pitched laughing from above me on the canyon wall. I looked up to see the annoying little creature Ger'adu jumping up and down and laughing to himself. He began to shout encouragement to the specter, I heard something that sounded like great leader and then got fed up with the creature.  
"Hello Ger'adu!" I shouted up at him. He turned his face towards me and a look of surprise crossed his darkened face.  
"You cannot harm us little man! Great Leader will destroy you and bad beast and there nothing you can do about it!" He began to leap about again mocking me in another language that sounded more like hissing than speech.  
"Do something about this worm!" I yelled at it as I focused my mind on my Contain Materia and unleashed a tornado attack. The winds swirled around Ger'adu drowning out his screams and calls for help. The little monster was lifted off of his perch and thrown high into the air, right out of the canyon, his high pitched scream growing more and more faint until it stopped all together. I twisted around, cast Haste on myself, and raced back to help Seto. He was perched on top of the Gi and had his jaws firmly clamped around the monsters throat. I sprinted directly towards them and used a large rock to springboard myself directly at the specter. I raised my sword up over my head to deliver a slashing blow that could have cut the ghost in half, but just as I brought the blade down the thing flung its huge spear out in front of itself to block the blow. My sword went right through the thick wood shaft of the spear, leaving nothing but a long cut along the things chest instead of killing it. The front of the spear fell to the ground and was instantly consumed by green flames, a green fire was eating at the slash as well. The specter howled in rage and pain and knocked me to the ground with one of its giant hands. It then literally tore Seto from its neck, leaving some of its undead flesh in Seto's mouth, and flung him across the canyon. I thought that Seto would be splattered on the valley wall but with a graceful twist he hit the cliff with all four feet and easily bounded off. With a roar he cast Fire 3 on the beast while I followed up with a Flare. Both attacks hit dead on and more green flame began to eat at the creature. I took the small reprieve to see what Lance was doing, I did this just in time to see the plane begin to take off. I couldn't believe it...Lance was abandoning us. I couldn't run and let Seto fight the monster by himself so I rushed after the beast as he launched himself at the creature once again, hoping that I was wrong about Lance. The monster was ready for Seto this time and grabbed him in midair with its right hand. I could hear something that reminded me of deep-throated laughter as the monster lifted Seto up in the air. With another howl Seto sunk his teeth into the thing's arm and pulled his head back with all his strength. I heard a horrible ripping sound and saw that Seto had torn the creature's whole lower arm off. Seto fell to the ground, landing on all four feet as little bits of green fire drifted about him. The specter roared in pain and its eyes burned with an unholy glare that would have halted a demon in midstride. It lifted up its taloned fist and prepared to smite the beast that had possessed the guts to harm it. I could see that Seto could not dodge the blow and that would likely tear him in half, yet he stood there calmly, accepting his fate with dignity. Suddenly the monsters chest disappeared in a flash of green light as sound blared from behind me. I turned around to see Lance piloting the Formula, the mini-guns unsheathed and unleashing their wrath on their target. I turned around to see the monster writhing in pain, its body becoming a green bonfire. Finally the guns stopped and the valley became deathly silent, nothing remained of our adversary but a pile of ash that was quickly being scattered by the wind. Seto and I fell to the ground in exhaustion as Lance set the plane back down.  
He jumped from the cockpit with a wild grin on his face, "we got that bugger good didn't we! Ya we sure did! Turned that bugger into a bonfire we did!" I nodded and a short laugh escaped my lips.  
"So Lance," I asked, "you ever going to get me that coffee I asked for?"  
About and hour and 4 cups of coffee later we got ready to go. There happened to be a storage space right behind the gunners seat and below the pilots that was big enough for Seto to fit into. It was still a tight fit and his head poked out into the gunner's cockpit. The entrance was off to the side and so I was still able to fit in rather comfortably with Seto's head resting on my shoulder. "We ready to go?" Lance asked over the comm. link.  
"We're set up here," I replied as Seto growled nervously. "First time flying?" I asked him, he nodded his head. "Don't worry," I tried to encourage him, "flying is nothing compared to fighting a giant, man-eating specter with a really big spear." He grinned at that and closed his eyes in resignation.  
"Hey Zack," Lance called over the comm. link, "you have any idea where we're going?"  
I hadn't thought about that yet, as I pondered this question a dark mist seemed to drift into my vision, obscuring my sight. I tried to speak but only moaned as the darkness wrapped itself around me. My head hit the back of my seat and then there was nothing. I was floating in shadows as a familiar sick feeling crept up my spine. It was the prison for my soul, it was back. I screamed and screamed and screamed, I vented my rage in one mighty volcanic eruption. Already the pain was taking hold and I could feel myself drifting into the depression and suffering that I had escaped from not so long ago. Then Aeris appeared, but now she was only a shadow of herself. Her eyes were downcast and she looked so sad standing there as I was pulled further down into my illness. Then she disappeared as the face of Sephiroth obscured her body. His lips were pulled up at the corners in a cruel grin.  
"Foolish mortal!" he cried. "You defeated me once but now you must face the full force of mother's power! You will be crushed, you will be dragged back down into the pit she had you tapped in for so long. You will submit!!!" He started to laugh and all I could do was scream. I was shaking in rage, I wanted to destroy that face, to rip it from my mind and throw into the abyss from whence it came. I began to tear at my clothes I was so angry and it was then that I noticed something in my pocket. I reached in and pulled out a single, lonely flower. It was crumpled and wilting but I still recognized it as the flower Aeris had given to me when I defeated the sickness the first time. It was all I had and so I clung to it with all my might, praying that I might find a way out of the nightmare. As I floated there with my eyes closed I noticed that my hands were tingling. I looked at them to see that the flower was glowing once again. I clung all the tighter, but this time with hope that I would escape. A blinding flash covered my vision in seething white light. The pain was truly beyond anything I had ever experienced before but I endured it as best I could. However to my disappointment I did not see the inside of the cockpit when the light cleared but instead a single lonely column of stone and ivy reaching out of the mist to rise into the sky of stars. On top of the column sat a forlorn figure that I approached with caution. Suddenly I recognized the figure, it was me! The vision of myself sat on the hard stone floor, chains and shackles holding him down while blood flowed freely from his many wounds. The eyes were sunken and stared at me pleading for help, pleading for salvation. I ran forward to break the chains, to free myself but was stopped as a dark shadow fell over the two of us. I looked up and saw a monster descending towards us. It looked like a woman, at least to a point, but it was blue and its skin smooth like cold steel. Its eyes were even colder, they were black wells of darkness that seemed to infect the light around them with an evil tint.  
"What are you doing puppet?" it asked in the coldest voice I had ever heard before.  
"I'm freeing myself from you!" I yelled back. It began to laugh, a sound that reminded me of tinkling glass.  
"Do you know who I am puppet?" it asked me.  
"No, and I don't care," I replied, "It doesn't matter who you are because you're about to leave."  
"I don't think I'm going anywhere," it calmly retorted, "this body will make a useful instrument...once its old occupant is properly expelled." With that by spine arched in pain, it felt like it was getting pulled right out of my body. At the same time the vision of myself in chains began to writhe on the ground. It beat itself and clawed at its chains, its mouth opening in silent screams while I filled in the silence with real ones. All the time the creature stood over me, watching me as a child watches a bug its about to squash. There was nothing I could do and the pain began to take an even stronger hold. As I began to loose consciousness a picture of Aeris flashed through my brain, she was holding her flower basket and was laughing. She looked so vulnerable standing there and I knew then that this creature standing over me was what had destroyed her, Sephiroth might have been its tool but it had been the one in charge. I also realized that if I didn't do something I would end up just like Sephiroth, the pawn of this evil monster. I looked at the prostrate form of myself on the ground and was filled with a will to live, a want to survive that bypassed the pain and gave me the strength to stand. As I did so my twin stood beside me, his chains beginning to drop off to shatter on the stone. The monster looked confused, "what do you think you're doing?" it asked.  
"Kicking you out of my mind," I replied in a strong voice that visibly shocked it.  
"No!" it screamed, "the girl is not here, she cannot help you! You can't be this strong! You will submit!!!" The pain increased tenfold but I was beyond pain by now. My life was pain, suffering was all that I could remember and a little bit more wasn't going to hurt me. I knew that I should be dying...that any normal person would have already died from the pain...knew that I probably was dying, but I no longer cared. I stood before the monster and mocked it with my simple unwillingness to sit down and die. It screamed at me again, "you cannot defeat me mortal! I am the mother, the one you fools named JENOVA! I am all powerful!"  
"No..." I replied, "You're nothing." As I said this I could feel the power rise up in me that I remembered from the helicopter attack. My Limit Break was filled and ready to be used, and in this I did not hesitate. This time was different though, I knew I had reached a new power level but I had not realized it had affected my Limit Break. I held out my sword and flower petals began to swirl around it in a dizzying ballet. The dance grew faster and faster as my sword began to glow a bright red.  
"What are you doing!" it screeched.  
"It should be obvious," I replied with a smile as I unleashed the full force of my attack.  
I leapt into the air and spun around and around until I ran into JENOVA head on, delivering blow after deadly blow as flower petals spun around the two of us, preventing any escape. The creature began to claw at itself in torment as it screamed for mercy, but none was given. Finally the attack was over and I fell back onto the ground totally exhausted. I lay there sucking in breath and wondering how I had survived when a shadow fell over me. I opened my eyes to see my alter-self standing over me, the chains were gone and for all appearances he looked like nothing had ever happened to him. He nodded his head and with a simple smile vanished. He wasn't the only thing that vanished either, everything was gone, the pillar, the stars, the plants, they were all gone and all that was left was the darkness. I don't know how long I floated in that void, but I do remember the wonderful cool bliss that washed over me as I plunged into it. It was like diving into a cool pool of water after a long hard journey, but like a pool of water I was beginning to surface and before me light began to shine. As I approached the light I saw someone standing in front of it, someone I recognized...Aeris. 


	9. Revelations

Aeris stood there in the tunnel, the light obscuring her features and leaving nothing much more than a silhouette. She just stood there not moving and as I drew closer I could hear her crying. When I got close enough to see her unobstructed by the light I saw that her eyes were red and that she had obviously been crying for some time. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked in a hurt voice.  
"Tell you what?" I replied.  
"That the beast was still alive in you," she said.  
"You mean the thing that called itself JENOVA?" I asked startled. I saw from her body language that I was correct. "I didn't know that the thing was even in me," I said as I tried to defend myself.  
"You never felt another presence in you? You never heard voices?" she questioned me as I saw something that looked almost like anger flash in her eyes.  
"Well ya but…" I stuttered but was cut short.  
"And you never once though to ask me about it?" she asked.  
"You were never around long enough for me to ask," I replied.  
She shook her head as I saw more tears run down her cheeks, "don't you remember what I told you in the slums? I can see that you haven't." She looked very sad and I wanted more than anything to comfort her.  
"What did you tell me?" I asked.  
"I told you that I'd always be watching you…and its true, I've never once left your side even when you couldn't see me. All you had to do was talk to me and I would have heard you. You kept this secret to yourself and had to fight JENOVA by yourself without my help…do you know, do have any conception how close to dying you came today…how powerful the creature really is? I could have helped; in fact I would have helped because you're the key, what my friends will do will stop Sephiroth and JENOVA if they are successful but you…you are to complete another and just as important task for me and you can't die!…you just can't…" Her voice drifted off until she just stood there staring at me and I began to talk. I told her of everything that I had seen and what had happened to me. About my illness when she saved me from the brink of death…everything.   
"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you Aeris but I didn't remember and I didn't want to bother you…I thought that I could deal with things on my own," I tried to apologize as best I could.  
She was very serious but then allowed a little grin as she wiped off the tears. "Thank you Zack," she said still smiling, "its ok…I'm just happy that you're alright, the information you have given me will be of great importance…and I'm glad you trusted me enough to share it with me. I think I know what has happened to you , but first I must check on some things. When I return I should be able to tell you just why you were so sick and what's been causing it. Until then I need you to be wary, you banished JENOVA for now, but until I learn why it is able to enter your mind so easily I can't be sure it won't return." I nodded my agreement and then remembered my other question.  
"Where should we go from here?" I asked.  
"There is a forest off to the east of where your plane is. It is called the Ancient Forest because well, because it's ancient," she giggled. "Sorry, but in that forest there is a hidden grove that your new companion, Seto, knows about. In that grove is the entrance to a secret Cetra Temple. Within that temple is an item of great value that I wish for you to take, but do not forget about the guardian, you will need to defeat him before you will be allowed to leave the temple. I am sure that you are strong enough to defeat him; as long as you and your friends fight together nothing will be able to stop you. Now this meeting has drained much of energy…I will attempt to contact you once…once again af…after you succeed…..good luck!" With this her body seemed to be consumed as the light behind began to grow in size and intensity. It filled my vision with its brilliance. I had to close my eyes and when I opened them I found myself sitting in the gunners seat with Seto and Lance. I tried to talk but only moaned.  
"Just lay still Zack," Lance said with genuine concern in his eyes. He was leaning over the edge into the cockpit while Seto remained in the storage space. "You really had it bad…whatever it was," Lance continued. "You were shaking and yelling like a madman. Sorry but I had to strap you down before you damaged the controls or hurt yourself." It was then that I noticed that my hands, legs, and chest had all been tied down.  
"I'm fine now so could you cut me loose?" I asked.  
Lance looked at Seto, who nodded, and took out his bowie knife, slide it beneath the ropes and cut them in two. In no time I was free and lying exhausted in my seat. "Excuse me Zack," said Seto, "but perhaps you could tell us just what happened to you anyway."  
It took a moment as I tried to find the right words, "before I met either of you I was very sick, so sick in fact that I nearly died. I was cured by a girl named Aeris, but the sickness recently returned. It was all I could do to keep from getting sucked back into it."  
"Aeris," mused Seto, "the name somehow sounds familiar…perhaps that was the girl with my son and that man…o well. Just who is this Aeris anyway?" I then spent the next hour or so explaining everything that had happened to me from my awakening in the slums to that very moment. I also told them about my meeting with Aeris and about our next mission. While I talked Lance fidgeted with his hands but I could tell he was interested, Seto on the other hand stayed perfectly still. When I was finished Seto shook his head.  
"If that girl is a Cetra as you say she told you then she is very special indeed…she may well be the last of her kind."  
"What do you mean?" I asked, "Just what is a Cetra anyway?"  
Seto's eyes closed and his brow furrowed as if he was trying to remember something very important, "the Cetra civilization was old when my grandfather was just a cub, that would be over 2500 years ago. They were humans for the most part, no one knew whether they were natives of this planet or if they had come from the stars. To tell you the truth I don't think that even they knew the truth. The Cetra could speak with the planet, they could hear the life-stream and could understand the language of the land. They built up a great civilization and ruled the planet with kindness and compassion for thousands of years before the calamity from the sky fell to the planet. The calamity was an alien life form that approached the Cetra as a friend before releasing a deadly virus into their midst. The virus spread rapidly and quickly destroyed the northern most tribes before spreading south. The ancestors of the normal humans were somehow able to escape the virus although no one really knows how, but the Cetra…sometimes called the Ancients were not so lucky. The calamity reeked havoc across the land before it was finally captured and contained by the handful of surviving Ancients. They survived by hiding or through a simple lucky immunity to the virus. They were unable to destroy it in their weakened states however and were forced to settle with sealing it and burying it beneath the sacred Northern Forest. Many years have passed but I sense evil in the wind. I think that it is very possible this evil creature has escaped once again…but I believe we will find this out soon enough. I want to tell you that the story I just related is very ancient and one of my tribes best kept secrets…not even my own son knew of it as he was still deemed too young at the time. I hope that I do not need to remind you of its secrecy and I hope you will respect it."  
Both Lance I nodded gravely, Lance was unusually solemn. "I think you may be right," he said, "while I was working for Shinra I remember hearing something about a JENOVA project being moved from Midgar to a town called Nibelheim. I was the head of the transport team and was given an unusual amount of access so I looked into it. Apparently some creature was discovered in some sort of…what was the name he used for it?" Lance scratched his head, "O ya, he called it a 'geological stratum'…anyway it was discovered beneath the Sleeping forest, the northernmost forest in the world."  
Set shook his head again, "I can only imagine what sort of revenge the creature…now named JENOVA will attempt to extract from the planet that trapped it."  
"You talked about a 'he' Lance," I asked, "who is 'he' anyway?"  
"That would be Professor Gast," he replied, "he was Shinra's head scientist and sort of a friend. I heard he died a while ago and that his apprentice, a man named Hojo took his place."  
We sat there in silence for some time processing what we had just learned until I clapped my hands, "well lets get going people, we can't just sit around forever." Lance nodded and jumped into the pilots seat, the cockpits closing behind him. "You know where we're going?" I asked over the comm link. "No worries Zack, we'll be at your Ancient Forest in no time." The engines roared to life and I could see Seto close his eyes again.  
"You think we'll make it all the way through takeoff this time?" I asked as sort of a joke. He only opened one of his eyes and gave me look that said the humor wasn't appreciated. I could see the valley fall beneath us as we rose up into the air. I could hear the chink and whir of machinery as the jets righted themselves and we began to fly foreward. The red canyons and valleys raced beneath us at an astonishing speed so that I could not make out much of anything. Lance must have really stepped on the gas because the landscape was flying by too fast for me to see, so I turned my attention elsewhere and once again noticed the huge meteor in the sky above us, its red glare saturating the atmosphere. "Seto," I asked, "what is that meteor doing up in the sky anyway…do you think it'll fall on us."  
He looked at me again and looked up at the sky, "another tale my tribe kept secret was one about the ultimate destructive force known as Meteor. If evil is walking the land again I would not be surprised if this thing is the same meteor spoken of…and if it is then we may well be doomed already."  
I sat back to think about this until I heard snoring from off to my side. I turned to see that Seto had fallen soundly asleep and I decided to follow suit. Just as my eyes were closing Lance's voice came over the comm link, "there she blows. You better check this out Zack…I think we've found your forest." I looked out the window as Lance switched to hover mode. Below us on a large and high plateau was what looked like a small jungle. It reminded me of pictures I'd seen of cloud forests and even from the air one could see that it was obviously very lush and very old. I roused Seto and pointed out the window.  
"Ah," he said, "so this is the forest the girl spoke of. The jungle is sacred to my tribe and it is where a male cub comes of age. We have a different name for it though and that is why I did not know what you meant by Ancient Forest. The grove Aeris spoke of is no doubt the very grove where all our ceremonies take place, I can take you there in no time."  
"This is it," I replied to Lance, "Seto has confirmed it."  
"Good," he said and suddenly the plane began to move down towards the jungle and I wondered just what we would encounter within. 


	10. Dark Ruins

The jungle rose up around us, embracing and entangling us in its thick green foliage. Only Lance's skill brought safely through the canopy down to the ground. The bushes and creepers around the landing site were torn and blasted by the Formulas powerful engines, creating a small crater in the middle of the forest. "Alright everyone," Lance said from over the comm. link, "everybody off." The glass canopy opened up and I climbed out to stretch my legs. Seto had a bit more trouble wriggling his way out of the small compartment and by the time he was out and ready to go Lance was already exploring the edges of the site. "Hey guys," he called, "come over here." We walked over to where Lance was standing.  
"Be careful Lance," said Seto, "this jungle is incredibly old and many things lurk in its branches that we have no want to meet." That set a little chill through my spine as I remembered the giant specter from Cosmo Canyon.  
"Forget that man," Lance said in a more subdued voice, "what do you here?" The truth was we couldn't hear anything, not the twitter of a bird, not the buzzing of an insect, not even the trickling of a stream.  
"I can't hear anything," I replied, "it's completely silent."  
"As I said before," stated Seto, "the forest is one of the single oldest places on the planet. It is the birthplace of the Cetra and is the sacred hunting grounds for my tribe…there are things here that are older than time…things that we really don't want to run into."  
"Speaking of things we didn't want to run into," said Lance, "just what was that giant specter back in Cosmo Canyon?"  
I smiled as I realized Lance and I had been thinking about the same thing.  
"That was the chief of the Gi Tribe," replied Seto, "they originally came from this forest as a great horde intent on the destruction of Cosmo Canyon, the first village to ever grow up in the shadow of the Ancient Forest. They wanted to destroy the mortals that had invaded their land but my tribe defended the village and destroyed the Gi. Only a few of use survived the carnage, my own mate died in the defense of the front gate. My son was attacked by an overwhelming force and was forced to flee into the night. Thinking I had lost everything I ran to the back door as my wife and I had planned. There I met the second attack force and fought them to a bloody stalemate. Their leader met me in single combat but I defeated him as well. They were so terrified that the few survivors ran out into the canyon. I no longer cared to live and let the poison in the Gi's arrows take affect, turning me into stone." He left off as the silence began to pervade our world once more. I thought that he was finished and made to rise but he began once more. "I stood there for many years, guarding the back door to the village through the fear I had inspired on that one night. Then one day I felt a new presence in the canyon, one that seemed familiar but I did not recognize. It was my son and some of his friends. An old friend of mine led them but before they reached me Gi Nattak attacked them. Gi Nattak was the Shaman of the Gi and a powerful magic user before he was killed in the battle. My son, a man with blonde hair, and a girl wearing a pink dress destroyed his undead spirit once and for all. Knowing that my son was still alive gave me the strength I needed to survive and I will find him once more!" He trailed off once more, this time for good. He turned around and motioned for us to follow him down a series of trails. Lance and I walked behind him, sometimes jogging to keep up.  
"Hey Seto!" I called up to him, "just where are we going anyway?"  
"To the heart of the forest where the Arena of Rites lies," he replied without turning around. I wanted to ask what the Arena of Rites was but I could see he was in a bad mood so I decided to wait and see.  
We continued along the way, staring in awe at the giant sharp-toothed pods that lined the path. Thin streaks of light touched the jungle floor after penetrating the thick canopy above. After walking far into the late afternoon we came up onto a grove in the forest. Grass grew in the nearly circular area and skulls were placed around the perimeter on carved wooden stakes. However, the most alarming part of the secret grove was the large grass covered mound with a large gold chalice sitting on a carved stone column that poked its head out of the grassy mound. Skulls of all shapes and sizes were piled around the stone column like offerings to some ancient unknown god. "Enter the Arena of Rites."  
"Wow," replied in Lance in a sort of referent whisper. Everything about the ancient grove seemed old, even the air here seemed to had not moved for centuries. I could feel that there was great power in the earth hear, I could almost sense something breathing below the surface…something powerful.  
"This is where the rite of passage takes place…when a cub becomes a warrior and where our dead are buried. Other ceremonies take place at our shrines in the canyons…only the most important meetings and rituals are done here," said Seto as he stood before the stone alter.   
"This is amazing," I replied, "I mean this is really amazing, but why did you take us hear?"  
"You said that you were looking for the ruins of an Ancient Temple…well I guess it would easier to show you." With this Seto leapt up onto the mound and approached the alter. He reached out with one of his huge paws and turned the chalice around and then back several times in a certain pattern, which I did not catch. When he was finished he jumped back down to level ground as the earth started to shake and a rumbling filled the grove with its vibrations. I fell to the ground while Lance supported himself by grabbing hold of a tree, Seto stood his ground stoically as the earth exploded and covered by face with dirt. When I had wiped away the fresh earth from my eyes a doorway stood where the mound once was. On closer inspection I saw that the mound had only been the top to a large circular building that had been hidden under the ground. I approached the portal and could see strange writing over the door. I looked into the building and could barely see in the fading light a spiral staircase leading deep into the earth below the grove.  
"How did you know this was here?" I asked Seto in complete bewilderment.  
"This is place is for the rites of passage as I said before…did you think we simply chose this grove because it was pretty?" Seto asked with that queer look on his face again that I took for a smile. "The cub had to enter this place and bring back the head of one of the monsters that lives down there…only then would they be full warriors. However, the complex has never been fully explored, more out of reverence then any other reason. When you told me about a Cetra Temple being located in this forest I knew that these ruins must be what you were talking about."  
All I could do was shake my head, "Aeris sure wasn't lying when she said we'd need you Seto…I don't know how we could have done all this without your help."  
"Thank you Zack, but now is not the time. I am thinking we should be entering the temple to look for the artifact Aeris told you about."  
"Yah…lets get going," Lance called out as he walked through the dark portal. We heard a muffled cry and several bumps and ran in to see what had happened. Lance was gone and all we could hear were some muffled cries coming from farther down the staircase. Lighting a Flare to light the way we ran down the stone staircase, staring at the strange hieroglyphs that covered the walls while trying not to trip. Finally we came to the bottom floor only to find Lance lying prostrate on the ground, covered in bumps and bruises.  
"What happened?" I asked in confusion, having expected some huge monster to be at the bottom holding my friend hostage.  
"I tripped and fell down the stairs," he replied. "Man it was dark…ow!" He rubbed his sore head and neck before getting up. The Flare had illuminated the room we were standing in and revealed it to be some sort of huge antechamber.   
"Hmmm…" Seto mussed, "we are only allowed to stalk in this chamber and a few others off to the two sides, but the door near the end of the chamber is off limits to us so we should probably check there first."  
"Ummm…" Lance hesitated, "isn't there a reason why that door is off limits?"  
"Of course," replied Seto, "its off limits because everyone who's ever approached it has never come back."  
"O…" said Lance, "so what else is knew…I guess we should be moving." We made our way across the gigantic floor, but when we were about halfway across my Flare flickered and died. I was about to spark a new one but Seto held me back.  
"Wait…there is a better way," with that he used his Mastered Fire with his Mega-All to cast a huge level 3 Fire attack that lit up the room like the sun. When the sparks had settled and the embers died out we saw that the attack had lit hundreds, even thousands of oil lamps that lined the walls. With our newfound light source we returned to our trek to the forbidden door. As we approached it I could see it in more detail. It was made out of some metal and looked to be almost unbelievably strong. The face of some huge monster was carved in the stone over the gate.  
"Be careful everyone," I said, "don't forget that Aeris said there'd be a guardian of some kind."  
They nodded and we continued. Finally we were directly in front of the gateway and with nothing left to do I pulled back the huge iron knocker and let it fall with a clang that seemed to shack the very chamber. As the noise died away the three of us stood still in the silence, listening for something…anything that might herald disaster.  
Lance finally broke the quite, "do you think that was such a good idea Zack?"  
"Well nothing seems to have happened has it?" I replied. We both stared at Seto and waited for him to say something.  
'Why are you looking at me?" he asked, "I've never gone this far…I've never approached the door…how should I know how to open it." As he said this the ground began to shake again.  
"Alright," Lance called out as he tried to keep his balance, "now I could have told you this was going to happen…o boy, another battle."   
"I think its coming from the door!" shouted Seto. We faced the huge door and waited for our enemy to show itself when the floor beneath us suddenly and violently exploded in a shower of stone and dirt. I was on my feet again in seconds and saw that both Lance and Seto were in battle positions.   
"Good!" shouted Lance, "we have it surrounded!" I had to laugh grimly as the 'it' he was revering to happened to be a giant snake-like creature that hissed and showed fangs big enough to impale a grown man. It rose up out of the hole in the floor, it's diamond shaped head and glittering red eyes hung high above the three of us while it used its two stunted legs to keeps it's balance on the floor while the rest of its round body was lost in the abyss. "Guys!" Lance shouted again, "we have more company!" We looked to see where he pointed and saw the floor crawling with hundreds of monsters both big and small all coming to the aid of their leader. "I'll hold these guys off just keep big guy over there off me!" With that he leapt into the fray, gun blazing. I looked back just in time to jump out of the way as those huge jaws snapped shut right next to me. The head reeled back and prepared for another strike.  
"What is this thing!" I had to yell to Seto over the gunshots and cries of angry and wounded monsters.  
I saw him close his eyes in concentration and I guessed he was using his Sense materia.  
"It's called the Gate Kraken and its extremely powerful…we need to be careful!" he yelled as he jumped clear of the fangs.  
"Alright!" I yelled back, "wait for it to strike then go for the head!" As I said this it attacked Seto a second time, but this time he was ready. He jumped back and lashed out with his huge paw, leaving long claw marks across its face. The Gate Kraken screamed in agony and flung its head at me like a flail. I jumped to the side as the head smashed into the metal door, leaving it in shambles.  
"Go on Zack!" cried Seto, "we can take care of this! You go and find that artifact…whatever it is!" He cast Fire 3 on the monster and then leapt onto its side tearing a large hole in it's side before jumping off to find a new point of attack. I knew he was right…someone had to go and find the artifact and since he and Lance were otherwise engaged and seemed to be handling themselves fine I turned and ran down the dark tunnel that would hopefully bring me to the treasure spoken of by Aeris. 


	11. Labyrinth of the Ancients

*******  
Seto stood there, daring the beast before him to attack again. The creature was up to the challenge. He jumped out of the way just as the Gate Kraken snapped at him, a strike that was faster than the blink of the eye…luckily Seto was even faster. He loved fighting, it honed his skills and made him stronger…fighting allowed him to think. He cast Haste on himself, doubling his speed while he dodged another attack, but just barely. Blood was now flowing from a wound on his shoulder and he knew he'd been poisoned. He turned to see Zack running down into the tunnel and Lance firing wildly into a crowd of monsters. The creature attacked again, this time hitting him unprepared, his body flew towards a stone wall, but he adjusted in midair and hit the vertical wall on his four paws before leaping to the floor. He now had another slash along his side and he could feel the poison taking affect as more of his life was drained. He growled in anger at the rookie mistake he'd made before attacking again. Seto caste Slow on the Gate Kraken only to find out that the creature was apparently immune to Time. The battle was getting worse all the time. The thing struck again but this time Seto jumped straight up as the huge head slid underneath him, it's fangs gleaming. He landed lightly right on top of the skull and dug in with his claws to help keep his balance. The Gate Kraken hissed in rage and began to swing its head from side to side but was unable to dislodge its opponent. Seto smiled grimly as his enemy wore itself out swing by swing. Finally the monster began to fight less violently and Seto raised his paw to deliver the killing blow. As his bloodied claws fell onto the creature's head with enough force to smash a man's skull the beast flinched, throwing Seto's aim off by a micrometer, his claws leaving only long bloody slashes instead of the gory hole that they were supposed to. The Gate Kraken screamed in pain and with a sudden jerk, sent its head and Seto into a stone wall. Seto was only able to stand slowly, the poison had significantly weakened him and getting smashed into a wall with about 2 tons of force had only served to worsen his deplorable state. However he was not beaten yet…no not yet…even as darkness stole over his eyes he felt a new strength rising up in him. He smiled again as power washed over his body. The Gate Kraken only stared at him, wondering how it was that its prey was not yet dead. Seto unleashed the force within him, awakening his level 4 Limit Break, Solaris Howl. He unleashed a feral scream into the depths of the cavern so terrifying and ravenous that everything seemed to simply stop. Above the arena floor a pale glow began to grow before blooming into a huge mist-blue orb. The Gate Kraken turned its head from the huge ball of mist back to Seto whose eyes were glowing with the same holy light. With deafening roar the orb seemed to extend itself downward in a huge vengeful column of light. It sliced through the Gate Kraken's body, entering the pit from where it had arose traveling down, down, down to eradicate the animal completely. As the light suddenly faded and the room was plunged back into the flickering torchlight there was nothing left of the Gate Kraken but its huge gore covered head, its evil eyes still gleaming even in death. Seto stood on wobbly legs, able to stand long enough to utter a satisfied growl before toppling over into unconsciousness.  
  
  
*******  
  
I was running through the passageway as fast as I could with nothing but the flicker of a torch to guide me. I had realized as I was running from the fight that a light source would be necessary so I had procured this torch from a wall bracket. The passageway seemed very long even though I knew I had not been running for very long. I could still hear the clash of battle behind me and could only hope that Seto and Lance were ok. As I ran I noticed that the walls were closing in on themselves at a sort of angle so that before long I was running down a very narrow passage. Finally the walls leveled out, leaving me running down a path that was no wider than two men standing side by side, but which reached high up to the ceiling, which was hidden by shadows. Up ahead I saw yet another door, made out of what I thought was the metal that had formed the first gate. Once I approached it however I noticed it was very different indeed, colors seemed to swirl and twist through the metal like it was alive and when I got closer still I saw the same stone monster head sitting above this door as the last one. I approached it cautiously as I was afraid it was another trap but before I could even reach out to touch it the portal opened on its own accord…as if my very presence had triggered some hidden mechanism. I drew back and readied my sword, but when nothing attacked and the roof didn't cave in I decided to move on. The next room was a much smaller replica of the original 'lobby' where my friends were still probably fighting. The only difference was that in the center of the room stood a little platform with something that looked like a sundial set on top. I approached it and saw that the platform was intricately carved with all manner of patterns, each as beautiful as the last. The sundial appeared to be made of pure gold and had been forged by a master craftsman. I could see no real use for the primitive device and so left it be, passing on through the room and into yet another small chamber. The instant I entered the door shut behind me with a boom and I knew someone was in there with me. The torch cast its faint light over the walls, exposing the many murals and hieroglyphics. Then I noticed what appeared to be a pile of blue rags in the corner…in fact I would have simply dismissed it as a heap of ancient Cetra garbage if it hadn't been for the little fact that it was breathing. I looked closer and noticed that whatever it was had on some sort of straw hat that obscured its face in shadows. All I could see was a long white beard hanging down to its feet. It motioned to me with a handless sleeve and began to waddle towards me, its robes following it in a train. I allowed it to approach but remained on my guard. When it reached into its sleeve my hand reflexively tightened on my sword handle, causing the creature to lift its sleeves and cower in submission. Once again and more slowly it reached into its sleeve and pulled out a piece of rumpled paper, it then motioned for me to take it. I reached out, by now a little more confidant that the creature wasn't going to grow into a ten-foot bug or something and grabbed the paper. The doors immediate opened and with its mission done the blue creature waddled out the way I had come with surprising speed. The note had a series of strange hieroglyphs scratched onto its yellowed surface. Underneath it was what appeared to be the translation to the hieroglyphs. Apparently there was some sort of maze further up the passage…a labyrinth that could only be navigated by turning right first once, then left twice, then right three times, then left again four times, switching directions in coincidence with the number of hours on a clock. It seemed a little strange but then I saw that the hieroglyphics on the paper had been copied directly from above the door I had been about to pass through so I decided to memorize the sheet. On the bottom where I had not noticed it before I could just make out a scrawled message. From what I could make out it read 'I hope this message reaches you Zack…sorry could not meet you…directions…endless labyrinth…find artifact and beware guardian'. So it was a message from Aeris, which certainly did make me feel better. I decided to leave the message on the floor of the room in case Seto and Lance followed me. I entered the maze only after lighting an unused torch on the wall and then walked through into the unknown. I discovered that it wasn't very difficult to find my way through the many corridors as the intersections were always clearly marked and the directions had been very precise. Although it sometimes seemed I wasn't getting anywhere I trusted in Aeris and her message and pressed on through the shadows.  
  
*******  
  
Seto opened his eyes slowly…so very slowly as the even the faint glow made his head pound. Something fuzzy was moving above him and it took a moment for the haze to take shape. Suddenly the shape became a face floating directly above Seto's. He got up with a start that bowled over his strange caretaker. With a growl he was on his feet again ready to attack only to see Lance sitting there on the ground rubbing his head and moaning. "What did you do that for?!" Lance asked indignantly.   
"Sorry," Seto said, "you surprised me."  
"Yah well…that alright I guess," said Lance as he rose to his feet. "You were pretty beat up…it took my only X-Potion and a Turbo Ether to get you on your feet again. By the way…just what was that Limit Break anyway…it was a Limit Break right?"  
"You are correct Lance, that was my ultimate level 4 Limit Break, Solaris Howl."  
Lance whistled, "just remind me to never get under that thing when it goes off!" He emphasized his point by kicking the decapitated head of the late-Gate Kraken.  
"Are you alright?" Seto asked suddenly, remembering that it was Lance who had held off the huge mob of monsters.  
"Yah…I'll be fine," he replied, "that mob was big, but not much in the power department." He motioned towards the field of monster corpses that stretched far back into the dark recesses of the room. Seto smiled and then looked towards the huge broken door that Zack had run through.  
"Come on Lance, we should be catching up with Zack as soon as possible…it wouldn't look good if he got himself killed, my owing him a life debt and all."  
Lance nodded his agreement and the two raced off down the passage after Zack. After coming to the first room with the golden sundial the pair stopped to rest for a moment.  
"Why'd you send him off ahead of us anyway?" Lance asked disgruntled. "He's good in a fight…he'd have been a big help in that battle back there."  
"I sent him on because our number 1 priority here is to find the artifact, if for some reason we had been killed then at least Zack would have been safe."  
"What good would that have done?" asked Lance, "there's only one way out…he would have to have gone back through that room anyway."  
Seto only smiled and started walking again.  
"Wait Seto!" Lance called, "what do you know that I don't!" But Seto was already walking through the door into the next room with Lance hard pressed to keep up. As they entered the new room Seto lifted his head and sniffed the air.  
"Zack's been here recently…he must have walked through this door, if we hurry we can catch him."  
"Wait Seto," called Lance as he picked up a piece of paper he found on the floor. "Look at this."  
The two read it and looked at each other, then smiled. "So…a maze huh?" said Lance, "we'll see about this. Zack must of left this here for us cause it looks like Aeris left it for him…how I don't know I think we need to hurry." The two walked through the gate into the labyrinth.   
  
*******  
  
I continued to walk…trying desperately to follow the map as the passageways became more and more twisted. They seemed sometimes to bend in on each other and other times to go nowhere at all, but I had no other choice but the trudge on. From the light of my torch I admired the workmanship that must have went into building this place. Beautiful carvings covered the walls along with amazingly intricate hieroglyphs. The walls seemed almost warm to the touch, like they were actually alive and I realized I must have been getting close to the center of the complex. Finally with another turn the passageway opened out into a huge room, not as big as the first one but better lit. I say better lit because small blue orbs burned brightly and suddenly to life as I entered the room. They were embedded in the walls and held up by beautiful lamp stands that looked like they had been formed from pure diamonds. The whole room glittered in the light and I felt that here was one of the last strongholds of the Cetra. This was a place untouched by untold centuries…a place that had never felt the touch of a real human. I knew that it looked the same as it had the day its construction was completed. As I marveled at its beauty I noticed something in the center of the room, there stood a stone altar surrounded by a small pool of crystal clear water. On top of the altar lay the most magnificent sword I had ever seen. It was a broadsword with a hilt of the most cunning design I had ever seen. I stood there before it not really remembering how it was I had crossed the room in so little time and decided that this must be the artifact Aeris had told me of. I reached out my hand to grasp it but before my fingers could curl around the hilt a movement behind brought me around. I stood there facing a creature that seemed stranger by far than anything I had ever seen before. It sort of reminded me of the specter we had fought in Cosmo Canyon as it had no legs…at least none that I could see. Instead it looked like a giant piece of floating armor, its breastplate, helmet, armguards, and gauntlets were all held together with chain mail. This chain mail hung down from below the torso and swung back and forth as if nothing more substantial than air was beneath it. The armor was covered in thousands of intricate patterns and symbols which all came together to create a completely unsteadying design. The helmet was fierce looking and was equipped with a pair of steel wings on either side of it. From beneath the helm I could see nothing but shadows and something else that could have been the glow of two unholy eyes.  
"The Guardian I presume," I said, readying for battle, my sword held out in front of me in my fighting position. A howl erupted from the armor that sent chills up my spine and made me grimace in pain at the sound. The Guardian reached behind its back and pulled out a gigantic double-bladed ax. It swung it back and forth a few times, its razor smooth edge catching the glitter of the orbs and sending sparkles of light across the room. It stared at me again and I began to wonder just where a creature that size would have hidden in a room this size. As if sensing my hesitation it let out another howl and charged, swinging it's ax as it came.  
"Well…" I said to myself, "this is going to be fun." 


	12. Guardian's Fall

The great creature rushed towards me with a screeching howl of madness. It's great battle-ax slicing through the air before it. I could not face this terror in a direct charge and so I leapt away at the last second, feeling the brush of sharp steel on my back. I hit the ground hard but rolled with the fall and was on my feet in seconds. Before the Guardian could strike again I cast Haste on myself and charged the monster head on. It raised up its ax to defend itself but I never got close enough to strike. Instead of attacking with my sword I raised my hand and caste a Flare directly at the creature. Another scream rent the air as the flames consumed the beast. In an almost fatal mistake I stood still to view my handiwork, but as I watched, the Guardian attacked from the inferno, it's capes replaced by veils of smoke. It had barely been harmed at all by the attack; in fact it's anger only seemed to make it stronger. It's ax cut through the air and rent a path of heated wind in front of my face. Attack after attack sliced past me, most missing by only centimeters, others missing by much less. My left arm and chest were now quite bloody and I could feel my tired legs begin to go numb. I caste every magic I had but with little affect. The Guardian continued its relentless onslaught as if it were as fresh as when the battle began. I was running low on life and magic power, the world around me was beginning to spin. I used Cure3 again and again until I had no more power to caste magic. I just kept on running, running was my only chance of escape, and around the crystal chamber we danced. But there was nothing I could do to save myself; I knew it and I think the Guardian knew it as well. My friends were behind me, maybe still fighting, maybe dead, and here I was all alone beneath a 10,000-year-old temple getting killed by a floating piece of armor.   
Everything was humming and it seemed that the patterns and writings on the walls were glowing with a soft green tint. I raised up my head and faced my executioner. I wiped the sweat and grime from my face with a shirt sleeve and rose to my feet. The Guardian was observing me carefully, as if curious about what this fly might try to do now. With a cry of pain, rage, and frustration I leapt into the air and with a last burst of strength I brought down Reaper's edge onto the Guardian. The sword struck the haft of the ax, which was being used to block my blow. With a great crash my blade was shattered and pieces of metal flew through the air, sending off a thousand sparkles of light. But the last blow of my faithful sword was not in vain because the broken blade continued on its course past the ax and struck deep and true. It caught near the top of the breastplate and sunk in deep before being pulled through the armor all the way down the monster's chest. It was screaming in pain and struck out at me, tossing my battered body away. I lay on the floor, almost dead, but I could still see the long gash I had left across the Guardian's chest. I smiled with the knowledge I had hurt it badly before it killed me. It approached slowly, out of apprehension or to savor the moment I do not know, but it was angry and that was that mattered. It raised up its great ax and prepared to bring it down with all its force, but before it could do so I heard a howl from behind me. A red flash flew over me and struck the Guardian on the chest. The monster reeled and almost dropped its ax as Seto landed lightly on the ground and prepared to attack once again. A machine gun was firing in the background but I did not seem to notice. The markings on the wall were glowing again and a voice seemed to speak directly within my head.  
"Zack...take up the blade of the Ancients...the Planet Edge is yours Zack...forged for you..."  
I rose on wobbly legs and stumbled past the fierce battle raging between my friends and the Guardian. I approached the pedestal with the sword on it and with weak but steady hands, gripped the handle. Instantly I felt a strange power flow through me and I suddenly had the strength to lift the weapon. I felt that I could do anything, take on anyone...I was drunk on the ancient magic that had protected this blade through the ages. Then another power to grow in me, and this one I could recognize. The Guardian had filled my Limit Break...a thing that I am sure it had not wanted to do. I unleashed my Limit Break and prepared to deliver my blow. Flower petals spun about me and my sword and the blade began to glow a deep rose red. The Guardian could sense the power growing behind it and turned to meet this new opponent. It cocked its head in bewilderment; it couldn't understand how this fly was still alive. With a battle cry I charged the Guardian and struck with the full force of my attack. I spun around and around and around, the flower petals dancing around me and my prey, preventing any escape. Blow after blow fell true against the armor plating, each leaving its own raged rift in the metal. Finally my final attack was reached and with a gasp of exhaustion I swung my blade one last time. The edge lashed through the air and through the chain-mail surrounding the Guardian's neck. With a screech of tearing metal the helmet fell from its armored shoulders, falling with a crash to the floor below. The armor followed suite by depositing itself on the ground next to its head with a great crash of metal. I fell back onto my back and gasped for breath. My body could barely move and it hurt my chest to breath.  
"Quick Seto," called out Lance, his voice growing fainter by the minute. "Help me set up this tent...Zack needs to rest or else he'll..." I blacked out. My eyes started to open again, by now I was used to the fuzzy, hazy vision that came after unconsciousness.   
"Lance," someone said, "come over here...I think he's waking up." A shuffling around me grew louder. I looked up and made out the faces of my two friends, Lance and Seto.  
"Uhhh..." I groaned, "What happened to me?"  
"You were unconscious Zack," said Seto. "You had quite a fight there."  
I sat up and looked around, we were still in the crystal chamber, the Guardian's broken body lay several yards away.  
"My sword!" I yelled out remembering the sword, "where's my sword!"  
"Easy Zack, easy," Lance said trying to calm me down, "here it is." He reached over next to me a lifted up the ancient blade. "Ow!" he yelped, dropping the sword, "I forgot about that...the sword won't let us pick it up without burning our hands. I don't know how you ever managed to use it..."  
I picked up the sword without the slightest hesitation and without any discomfort. "I think it was made for me..." I replied.  
"How's that?" asked Lance, "that thing has to be at least 7,000 years old!"  
Seto, who had been quiet until then now spoke up, "the Cetra knew about many things...I wouldn't put this past them...and besides, speaking against the Ancients in their most ancient and holy temple is probably not the best idea."  
I got to my feet and looked around, still clutching the sword. "So..." asked Lance, "what's the sword called?"  
I looked absently at him and then back to the sword, "it's called the Planet Edge."  
"Hmmm..." Seto inspected the intricately detailed blade more closely. "And was this that awakened that attack of yours that destroyed the Guardian?"  
"No," I replied, "I used the attack before...in a dream. Its my level 4 Limit Break...I think I'll call it Tempest Rose."  
The two nodded...obviously finding the name fitting.  
"We should be leaving," Seto said more to himself than anyone else.  
Lance took a step back, "but that place back there is still crawling with monsters. How do you expect us to get out of here...especially in our weakened states?"  
Seto just looked at him and gave him that twisted smile, "I don't expect you to at all...come with me." We had nothing else to do but follow Seto back into the maze, which was even more difficult to get through this time because we were going through the opposite way. Finally we entered the room where I had found the little blue monster. I told Seto and Lance the story but neither of them had seen anything closely resembling the little blue creature. Seto, however, noticed a strange odor near the corner where I had found it...'a smell of age' he called it. We continued on into the room with the golden sundial, and this is where we stopped.  
"Remember the chalice on the surface that I turned to open the doorway?" asked Seto. Lance and I replied that we did.  
"But what does this have to do with anything?" asked Lance.  
Seto turned his head, "everything...now just watch." He approached the pedestal confidently. "This sundial reminded me of the Offering Chalice in the sacred grove, and I bet this one turns just like the one above." Saying this he placed his paw on the sundial and twisted it. Amazingly it actually worked. He turned around and again several times in different directions and at different degrees. Finally he stopped, but the room remained silent and still.  
"Hmmm..." Seto mused, "The combination must be different down here. I need to think."  
So Lance and I sat down and left Seto to stare at the pedestal and sundial.   
After waiting about half-an-hour I got up to stretch but before I could sit down again Seto leapt to his feet. "I've got it!" he roared, "Oh, its so simple I should have seen it right away!"  
Lance and I came running over as fast as we could.  
"What's the combination?" I asked excitedly.  
"You see the patterns on the side of the pedestal?" asked Seto.  
Lance and I replied that we did.  
"Those patterns are the exact opposite of the ones on the pedestal above ground. So I think that if I put in the code, but in reverse it should work!" Seto was so happy with his discovery that he didn't even wait for us to respond before he began putting in the code. He finished and the three of us stepped back to see what would happen. Suddenly the two doors on either side of us closed with a slam as great stonewalls slide into place over them.   
"O no..." started Lance, but he was cut short as the room started the shake. Then, and more slowly, the wall in front of us began to sink into the floor. The rumbling continued and the ground shook so terribly that I was forced to a knee to keep from falling over. Finally the tremors were over and we stood in front a gigantic doorway to a tunnel that led off into the darkness. We know had no other place to go and so we followed this tunnel, a small fire spell our only light. The colors and swirls of the rock on the walls seemed to be moving with their own hidden live and I recognized it to be the material that had formed the second gate.  
"Aheremeth..." said Seto absentmindedly.  
"What?" I asked, "What did you say?"  
"I was saying," replied Seto, "that the walls here are made of pure Aheremeth...the most expensive and coveted building material on the planet. A vein like this would be worth billions...no, trillions."  
"Wow," said Lance as his eyes gleamed like those of a kid in a toy store. "Trillions you say...wow."  
"But if it was ever mined the Cetra Temple would be destroyed," I said.  
"That is true," replied Seto, "...some things are better left unfound."  
This was the end to conversation and we spent the rest of our time walking up the steadily inclining tunnel. After what must have been hours we came to yet another door, this one looking like the pure unpolished rock.  
"Lets try pushing it," I said.  
"You expect us to open a stone door that size by pushing it?" asked Lance.  
"Well we can try," I replied. The three of us stepped up to the rock door and began to push with all our might. At first nothing happened and all that broke the silence was our grunts of exertion. Then, finally, very slowly the rock began to move. With one last heave we sent it swinging out of the way to let the bright rays of sun into the tunnel.  
We stumbled out into a world steeped in twilight. Looking back we watched as the great boulder that had been in front of the exit swung back into place...completely concealing the tunnel.  
"How the heck did we move that?" asked Lance.  
"It must have been balanced very precisely," replied Seto, "in any case we're out."  
"But just where did we get out to?" I asked.  
We looked around but we appeared to be on some sort of mountain slope with the huge ocean off to the front of us.  
"Over there," said Lance at last, "do you see that little town over there? That looks like Costa del Sol, the place I told you about Zack. The Shinra have almost certainly stopped the search for the two of us so we can spend the night there."  
"But what about the Formula?" I asked, "its still in the Ancient Forest."  
"O yah," replied Lance, "almost forgot." He pulled out a small black box with a simple red button on the top of it. "This," he said, "will turn on the Formula, the plane will then home in on the signal put out by this box. So we'll just turn this on," he pressed the button, "leave it here," he set it on the ground, "and in the morning the Formula should be sitting here waiting for us. Now lets get going...I want to be able to enjoy the beach before nightfall." With this he took off down the mountain side in the direction of Costa del Sol. 


	13. Return of the Princess Guard

Seto and I followed Lance as fast as we could, but he had a big head start on us and reached the town's entrance before us. I was slightly winded after the half-mile sprint and Lance seemed pretty worn out, but Seto appeared to be no more tired than when we began. "Here it is," proclaimed Lance with some of his excitement showing on his face, "Costa del Sol, the tropical resort of your dreams!" As we entered the town a blast of humid tropical air immediately hit us, practically knocking us off our feet. Seto huffed and puffed like he had just ran 10 times the distance he had.  
"Dis air is drying out my nose," he said, "id hard to breath!" Lance and I tried to keep our smiles down to a minimum at the sight of Seto in such discomfort.  
"Id not funny," he said, staring at us with a look that could kill, "led's jusd find someplace to sleep."  
It was getting pretty late so we decided we should concentrate on finding someplace to stay for the night. We turned and walked up a set of stairs so that we were standing in front of what looked like a house.  
"Lets try this one out," said Lance, "maybe the people here will let us in. This house used to belong to Shinra but I heard they were trying to sell it." He knocked on the door but nothing happened. "Hmmmm...," he said, "no one must be home." I looked closer at the nameplate next to the door, but in the failing light it was difficult to read...it looked like Villa Cloud, or something like that. I didn't know why but the name somehow reminded me of something, some memory that was still locked in the depths of my mind. We walked back down to the main road when I noticed a small information stand hidden underneath the stairs. A woman was standing there and she looked like she was bored out of her mind, but I decided to ask directions anyway.  
"Um, excuse me," I started.  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"I...um, I mean, we need directions to the nearest inn."  
"Ahhh," she said, her face immediately brightening, "so you're tourists huh?"  
I looked at Lance and Seto and then turned my attention back to the Information Guide. "That's right," I said, "we've come from...Cosmo Canyon on vacation."  
"Well that's wonderful sirs, I'm sure that your journey was long, but let me assure you that it was worth it. Costa del Sol is a paradise that will soak up your troubles and send your worries sailing away on a warm breeze." She looked a little apprehensive around Seto so he backed off a little.  
"Yah, I'm sure this place is great...but it seems kinda, well, dead right now, not a lot of people anywhere."  
She nodded her head, "with Meteor and Sephiroth and all no one wants to travel, everyone just stays put waiting for the world to end."  
"Sephiroth!" I practically shouted, "what about Sephiroth?"  
"You haven't heard?" asked the woman with a puzzled look on her face. "Sephiroth somehow summoned Meteor and now the Shinra are fighting him, trying to stop him before its too late. There's been lots of fighting and several explosions from the far north. A thing called WEAPON's been released, stopping nearly all travel from Junon Harbor, and everyone else would rather waste their money at Gold Saucer than relax at the beach. Buisness is really slow and so every potential customer is welcomed with open arms."  
I figured that all this must have been happening while we were down in the Cetra Temple. I wondered if we had been down there longer than I thought.  
"Thanks," I said, "but we were talking about an inn."  
"Oh yes," she replied, "how careless of me! There's an inn just down the road, the man who owns it has been in a slump lately due to Meteor but he still recognizes Gil when he sees it."  
"Thank you again," I said, "how much do I owe you?"  
"No, no," she said waving her hands, "the information is free."  
I placed 10 Gil down on the small counter in front of her. "That was excellent information," I said, "I'm sure it would have been difficult to find anywhere else." I don't know why but I was just in a beneficial mood then.  
"Thank you so much," she said, "if you want to visit the bar my sister works there as a waitress, just tell her I sent you and she'll give you a discount...but be careful...she still has trouble speaking the language."  
We thanked her again and walked off down the street in search of the inn. We passed the bar on our way and soon found ourselves standing in front of a wooden building set in front of a beautiful pristine beach caught in the grip of a tropical sunset. The three of us walked in and took our bearings. A man stood on a lowered section of flooring off to our right. He was playing pool and didn't look like he was interested in much of anything.   
"Excuse me," Lance approached the man.  
"Whadda ya want?" he asked.  
"We were just wondering if you knew where the owner of this inn is?" asked Lance.  
"I'm the owner...the owner of nothing really." This answer confused us but Lance continued.  
"So...could we rent out a room?" Lance asked.  
"Only got one room," the man said. "You got money and its yours...I don't really care."  
We gave the man his money and walked up to the room. The room was actually another piece of the original floor, only raised up. There were three beds there and Seto almost immediately flopped down on one of them.  
"Lets leave him alone alright," I told Lance.  
"You mean Seto or the inn owner?" asked Lance.  
"Both," I replied with a thin smile tugging at my lips.  
Lance laughed, "Yah, well if there's nothing here for me to do I think I'll take up that guide's offer and head to the bar."  
He walked out, leaving me alone with an angry Seto and a depressed hotel owner. I stared out the window for some time, enjoying the twilight. However, I soon became bored and walked down to the floor with the pool table. The hotel owner was still playing with himself and I watched off the side for some time. Finally he noticed me and turned to look at me. "You wanna play?" he asked me absentmindedly.   
"Sure," I replied. He tossed me a pool stick and re-racked all the balls. We played a couple games silently but sometime around the third game he started to comment on stuff, anything that came into his head really. I think that he was actually enjoying having someone around to talk to for a change. I couldn't say the same thing for me, the man was destroying me at pool and I had started to wonder about where Lance had got off to. As I set up for the shot the owner said something that caught my attention. Of course the ball went way off the wrong way and knocked the 8-ball into the right corner pocket. Now that would have been ok except for the fact that I still had 5 balls out on the table. I dropped my stick onto the floor as the owner chuckled to himself and set up the table once again.  
"What was that you were saying?" I asked.  
"I was just talking about Meteor," he said.  
"Could you please repeat what you said?" I asked, "I didn't hear."  
"Sure," he replied, "I was just saying that Shinra don't know what they're doing. I think they're probably behind all this in the first place. I've also heard some rumors about another group fighting the Shinra up north."  
"Really," I said, "what are they...soldiers or something?"  
"Not sure," said the owner, "some of 'em look like soldiers anyway."  
"You mean you've seen them?" I looked at him with a critical eye.  
"Well rumor has it that the man who bought the Shinra estate near the town gate is the leader of this team or whatever it is."  
I frowned and tried to remember the name on the nameplate, "Cloud, right?"  
"That's right," said the hotel owner, "Cloud something...anyway its just rumors so I wouldn't put too much weight on them."  
I nodded and thanked the owner for the pool games. He laughed and replied that he hadn't felt this good in a long time. I couldn't tell whether the talking or winning made him feel better. I walked back up to the room and lay in the bed next to Seto, who was softly snoring. I lay back and thought about everything I had learned. Somewhere in my past I knew Sephiroth, of that much I was sure. Now Sephiroth had summoned a giant meteor that appeared to be heading straight for us. Shinra was trying to stop Sephiroth (I had no doubt it was for extremely selfish reasons) and knew there was another group thrown into all this. A group led by someone named Cloud...  
Then I thought of Aeris again and remembered how much I wanted to save her...to somehow bring her back from the brink of death just like I had been able to do. I slowly slipped off into sleep as I listened to waves softly lapping at the shore outside. I was walking down through a sea of colors that were seemingly infinite in its borders. As I floated through the warmth and light a darkness began to taint part of current. This shadow began to expand and the light around it slipped into the black star like it was a well of pure night. A terrified presence was rushing towards me from out of the void. Whatever it was I knew it was scared and that it was coming fast. As it drew nearer a light appeared in the abyss and grew stronger and stronger as it drew closer. Then another essence made itself apparent behind the small orb of light; a great shadow that seemed to eat at the very life sucking darkness that surrounded it. There was something about both of these essences that I recognized, but I could not put my finger on it until the small light escaped from the darkness and with a swirl of mist and light, transformed itself into Aeris.   
She rushed towards me, her mouth open in a silent warning. Then I saw what was truly chasing her....Sephiroth. In an explosion of dark fire he entered the sea of light like an unworldly plague bent on destruction.   
"Zack!" Aeris called out, "he's here to stop me! He's here to destroy me so that he can de-summon Holy, you have to stop him Zack...I have no more strength left." She flew behind me as the darkness descended.   
"So you think to defy me again?" asked Sephiroth as he drew nearer. "I though you had learned your lesson, but I suppose I was wrong...I think you need to be taught again."  
"You can't do anything to me Sephiroth!" I called back. "I defeated you and your disgusting monster of a mother!"  
I could not be sure but I think he flinched at the memory.  
"Fool," he replied, "I have grown much stronger since then....much stronger. My...mother...lets just say I'm in charge now. I will be one with the planet, I will rule, and then none will stand before me!"  
I could sense some movement behind me. Aeris called out from my side, "no matter what you think Sephiroth, you are no more than another slave to the monster JENOVA! You will be used and discarded like all her other puppets. If you stop this madness now Holy can still stop Meteor...think of the lives you would be saving!"  
Sephiroth began to shake with laughter, "haven't we already gone through this little girl?" he asked. "The Cetra knew better than anyone what happens to the dead. The lives you spoke of will come back to the planet...they will fuel me! Instead of seeing all that energy wasted I will put it to good use, and any amount of suffering is worth that!"  
Aeris's eyes flashed with anger as a single tear rolled down her cheek. "You want to be a god...that all you've ever wanted, and JENOVA is just using it to manipulate you into..."  
"Enough!!!" shouted Sephiroth. "Give up the girl worm and I promise I'll make your demise swift and painless."  
I stared back at the black caped man and set my jaw, "No...you can't destroy her Sephiroth...not while I'm still alive."  
"She is already dead! I simply want to put her meddling days to an end once and for all," he bellowed.  
Aeris came close and spoke into my ear quickly but quietly. "He's too strong for you to fight now Zack," she said, "I've regained some of my power in this short interim and I should be able to elude him for a little while longer...besides, he'll soon be busy dealing with others." She didn't tell me who these others were but continued. "I need you to find my body in the Lake of the Ancients in the ruins of the Cetran city on the northern continent...the ruins are north of the Sleeping Forest. Then I need you to fly southeast, with my body, over Midgar and over the mountains south of the city. I've left another beacon there to show you the way so don't worry about that. There's a cave there with a man who can give you the final piece to the puzzle...the final piece of the Artifact. Now go! Go quickly, Meteor is ready to fall and soon Holy will no longer have the power to stop its destruction. This is our last hope. After you have the final piece I promise you'll know what to do." With that she flew from my side and was swallowed up by the color and lights. Sephiroth stared at me long and hard, as if trying to decide whether to kill me now or later. With a glare of the black fire he opened up another portal into the void and descended into it. With the passing of Aeris and the dark Sephiroth I was allowed to once more drift in peace, at least until morning came.  
I awoke to sunlight streaming through the window onto my face. I got up and found Seto still snoring loudly next to me. Lance was gone but his bed had been slept in so I didn't worry about him. I got up and walked down to the main floor and could here the click of pool balls as the hotel-owner played by himself. I asked him where my friend was but all he did was point at a door. As I walked towards it I heard a toilet flush and the door unlock. Lance came out and I could see he'd taken a shower.  
"Good morning Zack," he said cheerfully. "And how are you?"  
"Fine," I replied, "but I don't think Seto's enjoying himself very much."  
He laughed, "No...I don't think he is. So anyway Zack, just what are we gonna do? The people at the bar seemed sure Meteor was gonna fall in the next couple of days or so and I'm thinking we won't have a chance to do much of anything once that piece of rock comes tumblin' down."  
"Don't worry," I replied, "Aeris visited me last night and she told me what to do."  
"Really," he said, "I though you moving around in your sleep a little more than usual...so what did she say?"  
"We'll wake up Seto first and then we'll talk."  
Waking up Seto was harder than it sounded. When we were all finally up I decided I should tell them just what Aeris had told me. When I was done Lance let out a long whistle, "I guess we'd better get going quick if it's up to us to stop Meteor."  
The two of us dashed out of the inn and down the street to the town entrance but Seto lagged behind, a concerned look on his face. As we walked towards the place where Lance had left the radar box I tried to inquire of Seto just what was bothering him. However, he was strangely silent and would not say anything more than 'nothing'. We arrived to find the Formula sitting right where Lance told us it would be, so without a second's hesitation we piled in and took off. The landscape and ocean slipped below us peacefully as we made our way north. It did not take long to reach the northern continent and in fact it was still early afternoon. The forest was not hard to spot and with Seto's help we managed to land in a deep crevasse just south of where he said we'd find the ruins. Lance had wanted to land further south and walk through the forest, saying that he'd landed in one two many canyons for his liking, but Seto insisted the forest was out of the question. After we landed it took a little while to get started, as we had to stretch our sore limbs. Finally we began the hike. It was cold but not as cold as I would have expected, in fact the chill breeze was a welcome change from the heat of Costa del Sol. We were walked down a narrow path guarded on both sides by steep white-rock walls. Seto was improving by leaps and bounds and would often run ahead by jumping from one side of the narrow gorge to the other. Soon the path began to change and the trail turned to more of a road, paved with some shell like material.  
"We're getting close," Seto said as he had ended his temporary frolic to walk beside us.  
"Man," said Lance, "why are you so excited? First you act like we're all about to die and now you're all happy-go-lucky...this just isn't like you."  
"Sorry," he replied, "I was simply...worried before and I apologize if it bothered you. But the reason I'm so excited is because this was the first place my father ever took me as a cub. He said that it was important for me to learn about the history of the planet. That is my fondest memories...barring the birth of my son."  
Finally we arrived to find ourselves amidst the ruins of an ancient tide-pool. Huge, cracked, spiral shells dotted the landscape around us as the shell path wound its way among them. But it was what was before us that got our attention. A huge forest of trees had grown up in the middle of the shell field and before us I could see a narrow blue path leading through the thick growth.  
"This is one strange place," I said more to myself than anyone else.  
"Yes," replied Seto, "this is the ancient city of the Cetra. Those shells you see were once the homes of a gigantic race of sea snails, now extinct, but the Ancients turned them into houses for themselves. That wood you see before you, that is the sacred tree Arelinor. The place you are seeking is, I believe in the grove of the tree."  
"Wait wait wait," said Lance waving his hands, "you mean to tell us that that whole forest is one huge tree?"  
"Yes," replied, "now come quickly, I do not think we have time to dawdle."  
We followed him down the path and through the tree, whose branches rose far above us, making a tunnel through its depths. Then we were beyond the tree and stood within a grove completely surrounded by Arelinor. A large shell house stood before us and below it sat a tranquil pond, whose surface was as blue as the sky on a clear summer's day and reflected back the world like a mirror.  
"This," said Seto, "is the place I think you were looking for. If the girl gave you accurate directions then her body must lay somewhere around here."  
"Not anywhere," I said, "in there." I pointed towards the pond.  
"Why would anyone be buried there?" asked Lance with a puzzled look on his face.  
"Besides the temple we were just in," replied Seto, "this pond was the most sacred place to the Cetra. It is fed from springs whose origin can be traced to the heart of the planet and it has many subtle powers. It could be that whoever buried her here either knew of these powers and hoped to give the girl a place to focus her spirit from...or it could be that they placed her in this place of power by coincidence..."  
I did not wait for Seto to finish but walked down to the shore of the shore and made my way out to the middle of the pond without a thought to getting wet. I felt something strange brush my foot and bent down for a closer look. It appeared to be a staff of some sort, at least the top of one; the rest was buried beneath the sand. Without a second glance back I dived into the warm water and began to dig at the wet sand. It took me a while, as the sand would often shift back down into the hole I'd make but eventually I uncovered most of the staff. As I continued to dive and dig Lance and Seto set up camp by the beach. Then as I dove down I lifted up one last handful of sand and revealed a single closed eye. I was so surprised that I leapt out of the water with a shout. I splashed water around and yelled again so as to wear off the adrenaline rush. Lance shouted at me to keep quite and Seto recommended that I be more respectful in such a sacred place so I went back silently to my work. Soon I had the whole head uncovered and I instantly recognized it as Aeris's. Before long I had dragged the whole body to shore and had placed it next to me by the fire so that we could both dry off. Seto was off doing a little exploring but Lance remained behind to watch the camp. As I sat beside the fire I stared at the face laying on the ground next to me and tried to place it with the vibrant sensitive girl who had visited me in my dreams. A shadow fell across the closed eyes and I turned around to see Lance sitting beside me. We didn't talk for a long time, but instead listened to Seto's mournful howls as they carried through the tree branches.  
"Its uncanny isn't it," said Lance finally.  
"Hmm..." I asked, "What's uncanny?"  
"The girl," he said, "Aeris, I mean. She's been dead for some time I think but it looks like she's just sleeping...like she could just wake up at any moment."  
"Yah," I replied seeing that he was correct in his assertion, it did look like she was asleep and not really dead.  
Then we fell silent again, each concentrating on his own thoughts for the time being. Meanwhile, Seto's cries were caught in the breeze and carried across the starlit landscape. 


	14. Sacrifice

I woke up earlier than the others and got up to strech. I had not slept well; my dreams were full of fire and screams. Lance and Seto were both sprawled out on the grass next to the fire, now nothing more than a few burning embers. Aeris...or Aeris's body I should say, still lay peacefully next to me, and only its ice-cold skin was an indication of its vacancy. Looking up the sky was tinted with red and the air seemed to be electrified somehow. It was then that I knew Meteor was falling...that the planet would not survive to see another sunrise if Lance, Seto and I were not able to do something.   
I woke the others up and we practically ran all the way back to the plane. It was hard going but I insisted on carrying Aeris's body the entire way. Seto also agreed with my evaluation regarding Meteor and was all the more willing to give up even more room in the cockpit. Lance needed his entire area to himself so that he could fly the plane so yet another party was wedged into my cockpit area. Seto tucked his body into the storage compartment as tight as he could while Aeris lay on my lap.  
"You remember where we're going?" I asked Lance over the comm. link.  
"Southeast over Midgar and mountain range, look for another green beacon....got it," Lance replied.  
"Good," I said, and settled in for a long flight.  
Although I tried to get some rest, with the air literally pulled to a tense, fine line that threatened to snap at any moment, I discovered it was impossible to do anything but think. I had been thinking a lot lately, perhaps too much, about different things. I thought about my friends, about the mysterious Cloud, about Meteor and Sephiroth, but most of all, about Aeris. I also realized that if we did not accomplish what we were supposed to, none of that would exist anymore...except for Sephiroth if what Aeris had said were true, about him becoming a god. I looked down and stared into the cold dead face that had once belonged to Aeris and knew that I had to stop this evil from occurring.  
Lance was really stepping on the gas because in no time at all we were flying over the giant city of Midgar.  
"Hey look," said Lance over the comm. link. "There seems to be some sort of huge gun mounted over the city...reminds of the one in Junon Harbor." He was right, there was indeed a huge cannon of some sort looming over the dark shell of Midgar.  
"It doesn't matter," I replied, "we have to hurry and can't stop to ask questions."  
"Whatever...I was just pointing it out," said Lance in defense.  
"Sorry," I replied, "I'm just a bit on the edgy side."  
"We're all...how did you put it? edgy," said Seto as his head pocked out into the cockpit like a turtle's head from its shell. I nodded and we continued on our journey. We flew through the same mountains that Lance and I had gone through to escape Shinra that first time we had met. Then we were over the mountain range and flying between the edge of the mountains and a clear blue river.   
"I'm gonna fly a bit lower, " called Lance, " we're not all that far from Junon Harbor and I don't want to get picked up on radar."  
The Formula dipped down in the air and we began to skim near the ground. Before long a pale but intense green light flashed like it had that first time at Cosmo Canyon. This time we recognized it and set the plane down near it. I left Aeris's body propped up inside the cockpit so that we could travel faster. There was no vision of Aeris holding the beacon light this time though...only a cave opening set into the side of a mountain. Seto sniffed the air and said that it was ok, so we went in. The cave was small and the floor covered in sand. A few items sat around the room on the floor and on makeshift shelves. To the back of the cave I heard loud snoring, and so went to investigate. There was a thin old man laying there on a bed snoring away and absently mumbling in his sleep. I walked up to him and shook his shoulder.   
"You've killed 43 monsters," he said without even opening his eyes.  
I looked at Lance and Seto before shaking his shoulder again.  
"You've killed 43 monsters," he said again and went back to sleep.  
I shook him again and the same thing happened. Seto and Lance just shrugged their shoulders and motioned for me to try again.  
This time when he woke to tell me that 'I'd killed 43 monsters' I shouted right in his face, "Wake Up I Need Your Help!!"  
That got him up and he quickly brushed off the sand and got up from the floor where he had rolled off.  
"Alright alright youngin', I'm up...I'm up for goodness sakes you didn't need to shout," he said. "Now," he said, "what's so important that you have to wake me up for it?"  
"Well..." I replied, "Meteor's falling probably today or sometime tonight, I've been told I have to stop it, and I was also told you could help me."  
"Hmmm," suddenly the old man didn't look so weak, "so you claim to be the 'Bearer', huh? I suppose you have the Focus Piece?"  
"Focus Piece? Bearer?" I asked, "What are you talking about?"  
"The Bearer," he said with a sigh, "was the person the Focus Piece was designed for. The Cetra knew that Meteor might be summoned again and so they forged the White Materia-that's a whole other story- to stop Meteor. However, they never left anything to chance and so created a second system by which Meteor might be stopped. While only a Cetra can use the White Materia, a normal human, but only one chosen by the Focus Piece, can use the Artifact when its put together. As for the Focus Piece, it's a sword of some kind....That answer your questions?" With a sigh he plopped back down onto the bed.  
The room was silent for a few moments before Seto spoke up, "How do you know all this old man?"   
The man laughed in a high cracked voice, "I'm what used to be called a Freemason, a Cetra half-breed entrusted with something of importance. I say 'used to be' because truth be told I am the last of my kind... but I suppose you can just call me Freemason...since I have no real name."  
"Well," I said, "I do have a sword that seems to have chosen me." I pulled out Planet Edge and showed it to Freemason.   
"His eyes narrowed and he looked at me square in the face, "where did you find this lad?" he asked.  
"In a Cetra Temple underneath the Ancient Forest," I replied. I then gave him a brief summary of how we had come to find the sword.  
"Hmmm...the story's too accurate to be totally wrong...and he does seem able to hold it," the man was apparently talking to himself. "Alright," he said suddenly, "you look like you're telling the truth but there's just one more thing."  
"And what might that be?" I asked.  
"The prophecy stated that the Bearer would have a marking of some kind," Freemason replied.  
"What kind of marking?" I asked.  
"I don't really know...do you have any special identifying marks, a birthmark or a scar perhaps?"  
My heart sunk, I had no mark which meant guessed, that I wasn't the Bearer or whatever Freemason had called it. "I don't have any mark," I replied.  
"Actually," said Lance, "you do."  
"What?" I asked in total surprise.  
"Well I never really thought about asking you about it before but...you have the Roman Numeral 2 tattooed onto the back of your neck," said Lance as he pointed to my neck.  
My hand went up in a vain attempt to feel the tattoo as I turned around. "The boy's right," said Freemason, "there's a tattoo there alright." Seto only nodded. "I suppose you could be faking," Freemason said as he pulled the mattress off his bed and pulled out a wooden box beneath it. "However," he continued, "I'm inclined to believe you." He opened the simple box and pulled out a single, blood red materia orb.  
"What's that?" I asked.  
"This is the missing piece to the puzzle," he replied. He must have seen the confused look on my face because he continued. "I told you before that the Artifact had to be put together for it to work. The sword was the Focus Piece. And this," he lifted up the red marble, "is the second piece to the puzzle. It is a summon materia...the power of which is only rivaled three others."  
"Which ones?" I cut in.  
"Don't interrupt," Freemason replied. "The first is Meteor itself, the second is Holy, and the last one, which holds the souls of a long dead caste of knights, has been lost for many years." He placed the materia in my outstretched hand. "This is the Void materia," he said with great gravity. "It's holds the power to stop Meteor, but remember, it must be used in conjunction with the Focus Piece. The sword channels the great amounts of Magic Force needed to summon the Void, and makes it possible for a non-Ancient to wield the materia's power."  
"Great..." I said, "but where do I use it?" I'd lost my Carbon Bangle in the fight with Guardian and the other materia slots on the Planet Edge were filled.  
"Here," Freemason replied, "let me do it." He took the Void materia from my hands, and very carefully placed it into the empty space where a pommel would have been. There was a click, and then he let go. The materia stayed in place like it was meant to fit there.  
"Ha!" yelled Lance, "looks like we're going to get to stop Meteor after all! Lets get going!"  
"I must agree," Seto said, "we must hurry." Even as he said that the small cave began to shake a little.  
"It's started," sighed Freemason, "quick! Go now!"  
We wasted no time and were out and in the plane in no time. As Lance flew us above the line of the mountains we received a full view of North Crater. Although it was very far away from us we could still see the huge explosions that were tearing the area apart. The sky had gone black and now Meteor hung over Midgar like a great tiger over its prey. It moved closer and closer and I could hear the moan of the wind from inside the cockpit. The great flashes of light illuminated Aeris's face and gave a last chance to look at her before yelling over the loudspeaker, "Lets go Lance! Head for Meteor, this ends now!"  
Without a reply Lance set a course for the Ball of Destruction looming before us. We closed in closer and closer on it when a new light appeared from the north. A great blue wave rolled over the land towards us in visible pulses of energy.  
"Holy," Seto sucked in his breath in surprise, "so it does exist."  
Even as huge flaming whirlwinds shattered the roof of Midgar, Holy swept through and pooled itself directly over Midgar.   
"Yah!" cried Lance, "it's stopping it! It's stopping it!"  
"No," replied Seto, "it's too late for Holy...Meteor is too strong. Its gained energy and at this rate Holy's shield won't last long."  
"Then we'll just have to help won't we," I said as I pulled out the Planet Edge. I stared at the summon materia at its pommel, and made up my mind. "Ok," I said, "I'm gonna use Void."  
I concentrated on the materia and could feel the force held within welling up, looking for an outlet for its power.  
Then a small pale hand clasped my wrist, "No," a voice whispered, "not hear."  
I was very surprised but when I looked down and saw Aeris awake and looking at me I nearly pushed the ejection button out of pure fear.  
"Aeris!" I practically screamed. "You're dead!"  
"Not now," she said, "I'll explain later, but if you use Void here the plane will be ripped apart and everyone will die."  
Recovering myself as much as I could I called over the loudspeaker, "Ex that Lance, land somewhere and then we'll use Void."  
"Sure, sure," he seemed a little rattled, "Aeris...is that you?"  
Her cheeks tugged at the corners of her lips, "yes Lance...its me."  
Lance swung the ship around and headed down towards the ground. As we got closer I noticed something strange standing on a small hill in front of us. Whatever it was had its arms upraised and it was facing Meteor. I could make out more and more details as we flew in for a closer look. There was a flash of white hair and black cloth. Then there was long no-dachi sword stuck in the ground...I knew who it was.  
"Who is that guy down there?" asked Lance over the comm. link.  
Aeris, who had been resting, raised her head up to look out the cockpit as a look or horror contorted her face.  
"Sephiroth," I said, "that's Sephiroth."  
By now we close enough to see his actual facial features. His eyes were closed and his mouth upturned in a look of supreme happiness...and somehow the idea of Sephiroth being happy deeply frightened me. His white hair and black cloak whipped around behind him as Meteor began to plunge through Holy to renew its destruction of Midgar. Then the emerald green eyes opened and Sephiroth turned to face us.  
"He's somehow supplying Meteor with extra energy," said Aeris, "you have to stop him!"  
"Alright Lance," I said, "put her down here."  
Lance landed the plane and we all jumped out.  
"What are you doing Sephiroth?!" I called over the howl of the wind.  
He did not respond to my question right away, but instead pointed to Aeris, who was standing next to me.  
"You may have foiled my plans Cetra," he yelled, "but if I can't rule as a god, then I'll make sure there's nothing left to rule." He began laughing after this and apparently increased the power he was siphoning off to Meteor because his outstretched hand began to glow.  
Aeris whispered into my ear, "he's been significantly weakened Zack, if you charge him you can win. This is the last of the Sephiroth clones...it's the last chance he has. Remember, there's not much of the old Sephiroth left...poor Sephiroth." She shook her head in sadness, "you must destroy that monster Zack, for the fate of the world."  
I nodded and Seto and Lance came to stand next to me. "No," I said and put out my arm, "this is my fight."  
They looked at each other, nodded, and backed away. I raised Planet Edge horizontally so that could look along its razor sharp edge. I turned my head slightly, "keep Aeris safe. Don't let Sephiroth get near her." They nodded and I charged. Sephiroth was ready for me and in a blink of an eye, he had his sword, Masamune, clutched in both fists. We clashed. He fought like a whirlwind, his sword whipping about and striking like a snake, but I held him off. Then it was my turn. I pounded away at him with powerful sword strokes that bashed and broke his already weakened strength. Then I ran straight at him. The move surprised him and could not move his sword up fast enough to block me. I tackled him with all my might and both of us went down. He was fighting like a demon to get me off of him and rolled over so that he could jump to his feet. As I got to my feet I saw that we had rolled over the long blade of Masamune. I had still been laying on it when Sephiroth had jumped up and now it lay on the ground between our feet. The Wind was getting worse and I knew Holy could not last much longer. "Give up Sephiroth!" I yelled, "its over." I motioned with the point of Planet Edge to the sword laying on the ground under me. "Its not over yet," the ground began to shake around us. Suddenly a crack in the earth opened up next to me, and more of the ground was breaking up all around us. "I'll never be through with!" Sephiroth called, "Not as long as I have this body!" Suddenly washed over him as shakes racked his body. His voice lifted in a shrill screech, "Never!!!" Hands grasped at his hair and his head whirled around. "You'll never have my body monster!!!" He was lurching around as the wind whipped his hair and cloak around. Debris was flying everywhere. "I WILL NOT BE A PUPPET!!!!!!" Sephiroth screamed as he launched himself over the edge of one of the chasms. I could here his screams as he fell down, down, down into the abyss.  
I stood there for a moment, completely dumbstruck, before turning around and running back to Aeris, Lance, and Seto. Aeris had fallen to the ground and was crying over the earth. "Please," she pleaded, "you can feel the hurt already. You can stop it now. Please stop it before its too late!" As she finished, sparks seemed to fly up from the ground around, and the earth literally roared. Green tendrils grew up out the ground and began to slither towards Holy, which was at the breaking point, its shield being held up by only the tiniest thread. For as far as the eye could see all I could see was a sea of green light moving towards Midgar. "Give us the strength!" Aeris called out to the wind.   
It was then I knew what I had to do. Freemason had said that the Artifact needed great amounts of Magic to work. It looked to me like all the magic was being pulled into one place, Holy. The amount of energy there would easily be enough to summon Void...a Void so powerful that it could utterly destroy Meteor. I turned around to look at Seto, Lance and Aeris. It would save them, I though. I turned back around and started walking towards Midgar.  
"Zack!" Lance called out, "what are you doing?!" I ignored him and kept on walking.  
Zack!" Aeris yelled out over the scream of gale. I turned around and looked at her. Her cheeks were tear stained and I knew that she what I planned to do. She didn't want it...but I had to do it, at that moment I felt that I had been created for this one last task. So I took off running and I kept running as fast as I could to keep my mind off Aeris and what I was about to do. I focused instead on the materia and sword. They were melding, becoming the Artifact that I needed them to be. I could feel the energy welling up inside of me. It made my sword arm tingle. Midgar was right over me now And Meteor was just finishing its shredding of Holy. The Green Light was all around me and electrified the air. As I looked up one of the huge red tornados approached. The wind around me got stronger and stronger until my feet were literally lifted off the ground. I flew through the air towards the tornado and towards the focal point for all the energy. The Planet Edge was gorging on this power and Void was nearly powered up. I focused on this one last thing with the knowledge that was doing something special, something that would save thousands of people. I thought about Lance, Seto, my parents, but especially Aeris. As my body was flipped around like a rag doll in the wind I felt the Artifact draw the last bit of energy it needed. A light flashed around me, a light so intense that I was instantly blinded. But in those last moments before the darkness I knew I had succeeded.  
  
******  
  
  
As the huge light lit the world a giant hole rent the sky. It was a great black void, THE Void actually. The light grew so bright that a direct stare would have blinded you. In an explosion that literally rocked the world Holy used up the last of its energy and the energy given to it by Aeris to force Meteor up into the inescapable pull of the Void. Whole pieces and chunks were torn from Meteor and sucked up into the Void's great maw. Finally the main section of Meteor disappeared forever into the depths of the beyond.  
The next morning a large aircraft landed next to the Formula where Seto, Lance, and Aeris slept. A tall man with blonde spiky hair stepped out of the craft and walked down to the ground. Aeris was the first to awake and she was the first to see the new arrivals. When the blonde haired man saw her his face turned white. In less than a second he was racing towards her and the two tightly embraced as tears flowed freely down their cheeks. 


	15. Epilogue

Epilogue:  
By now you're probably wondering 'how the heck did Aeris come back to life? It's quite simple actually. You see, when Aeris summoned Holy her spirit had to take the message to the Planet. Sephiroth killed her right after she did this, but she still succeeded in summoning Meteor. Almost immediately afterwards Sephiroth started blocking Holy. So power built up and built up. Holy wanted out, but Sephiroth kept it in. Sort of like the pressure in a wine bottle. Now Aeris's soul is still basically trapped within Holy so she'll be like the cork in our analogy. When Holy was finally released it was like opening a wing bottle. The cork shot straight out with the wine. In the same way Aeris's spirit was shot right out of the 'underworld', if you will, and it found its way in a ghost like form to its body. I don't really care if you think this theory works or not...it's the one I used for the story.  
  
Now for what happened after the destruction of Meteor:  
Aeris never meant to force Zack to kill himself. She had meant to strengthen Holy will the energy she summoned forth. Unfortunatly Holy had been damaged beyond repair and by calling up all that lifestream energy and focusing it on Holy she inadvertently made it impossible for Zack to summon Void from where he was. He had to go to where all the energy was focused. This might have killed him, but in the end he saved (with the help of Cloud and Comp.) the entire planet.  
Sephiroth, it seemed gained just enough of his old sanity to end his own mad campaign before it went too far. After being held at bay, manipulated, and imprisoned within his own mind for all those years it is truly amazing that he was able to accomplish what he did. Perhaps he finally gained the revenge he sought upon the one he called Mother, the creator and master of his life.  
Cloud and Aeris were married soon after the battle. The two of them moved to Icicle Inn where they raised three children. The first was a boy, which they named Zack in memory of the original. The second was a little girl that they named Ifalna after Aeris's mother. The third was another boy, who was called Sephiro, however his full name was Sephiroth. Although this may seem strange Aeris insisted on the name.  
Barret and Marlene returned to North Corel and Barret now heads the program to rebuild his hometown. With all Mako Reactors shut down and Mako energy outlawed coal has become the only real source of energy. North Corel grew very rich very fast, but at the same time Barret insists that newer, cleaner sources of energy be researched (ones that don't include Mako Energy). He also built a monument to Dyne and recovered the body so that the broken man's corpse could be buried next to his wife's.  
Nanaki (aka: Red XIII) and his father Seto returned to Cosmo Canyon. Seto stayed behind to run things in Cosmo Canyon while Nanaki went out in search for others of their kind. I did not only find one, but indeed a whole pack. The pack consisted of a few survivors from the Gi attack and many more young cubs. Nanaki returned to Cosmo Canyon with the future of his race secured. He soon took a mate and they had many cubs together.  
Tifa bought the bar in Kalm and turned it into another 'Tifa's 7th Heaven'. She is doing fine for herself, and although she is still not married, she is dating a man and it is expected that they will become engaged very soon.  
Reeve personally oversaw the Midgar Rescue Project where the city was literally dug up so that its citizens could escape from the slums below. During this process two discoveries were made. The first was Zack's sword, Planet Edge. It was found piercing the ground of the helicopter pad at the top of the Shinra HQ. Since Zack's body was never recovered the sword was placed (very carefully since it was impossible for anyone to touch it with their hands without being burned) into a monument that stands outside Midgar. Strangly though, the Void materia was missing as well, and has yet to be recovered. The second discovery was Rufus. He was discovered in a slum hospital. However, the Diamond WEAPON's attack left him a paraplegic. Although many people wanted to see him executed Reeve gave him a second chance. For some reason the loss of his legs greatly affected Rufus, and he turned his thoughts solely onto helping the survivors of his broken city. Soon, towns spread up across the world where the survivors of Midgar made their new homes. Rufus actually became known as a charitable and amiable man!   
Cid married Shera and with Lance as a partner, literally took control of Junon Harbor. The town was moved to a better location using Junon funds and the one time military base is now the Mecca of engineers. Inventors, pilots, and engineers travel across the world to visit Junon Harbor. The Highwind was rebuilt and it is now believed that Cid is planning another trip into space...this one to the moon!  
Vincent found Lucrecia and since she had been purged of JENOVA cells (when the conscious died with Sephiroth all its cells died as well) he was able to marry her. They did not move to Nibelheim as the entire town was burned a second time and the monstrosities created there destroyed. They did, however, manage to save the books held within the Shinra Mansion's library. Now the two of them are working on writing a comprehensive history on what happened during the time when JENOVA was first discovered and when Meteor was destroyed (Vincent also looks for a way to somehow reverse whatever Hojo did to him). Yuffie went back to Watai where the title of Master of the Pagoda was passed from Godo to her. Since then she has been a surprisingly good businesswoman and leader; Watai has already regained much of its past glory.  
  
There it is...the end. That's all she wrote folks. It's been good but I'm moving on to writing new things.  
  
  
Fine 


End file.
